Elemental Chronicles: Book One Seeing Green
by JasmineMoonblossom
Summary: Jasmine has always been...a bit odd. A loner and victim of school, she has no other connections other than her aunt. But fate takes a twist when she moves to America, and discovers friendship, secrets, and powers beyond belief. Somehow she is tangled in a prophecy, and soon she'll have to face down a foe more powerful than anyone else. First FF, review, and please no flames!
1. Prolouge

**Prologue **

I rolled down the window, glancing at the tall city skyscrapers we were leaving behind. Metal tones blurred into the endless green of the countryside, and the fresh wind, untainted with pollution, whipped my long hair. A sigh worked its way out of my lips, and I slumped into my seat. The back was crammed with our belongings. My sweet little bunny, Lola, was stretched out luxuriously across my lap, her little, white furry nose gently moving up and down as I stroked her back.

"Jasmine, I know this is hard for you, but I can't let you stay there if those kids keep on bullying you." My fingers curled into fists.

"It's been the same Aunt Juniper. This is the 23rd time we've moved." Nothing that I've said was truer than this. I honestly lost track of how many places we've been, counting our vacations. Malaysia, London, even Africa, they all blurred into bittersweet memories. And most recently, the United States. After Tennessee, Michigan, and Ohio, we're now traveling to Texas. Oh joy. Bet I won't make it through a year.

"Jasmine, look at me." I tore my eyes away from the window, gazing unwillingly into my aunt's kind hazel eyes. "I promise you, this is the last time we're moving. The community that I found is perfect for you. Friendly, with the same interests."

Oh marvelous. Last time she said that, I had wound up going to this helping club with a whole bunch of squealing, over-the-top girly little girls that were annoying the living daylights out of me. There was this one girl I despised more than the rest. Mckenzie, with her little angel smile and sparkly designer outfits, came up to me one day, and started complaining about how my shirt had absolutely NO SPARKLE. Just like that, she snatched a bottle of sparkly glitter glue and sprayed the contents all over my sunflower embroidered shirt. After a few clashes, more glitter attacks, some dramatic kicking, an incident with a pink spatula, and general screaming, the little brat finally apologized. I was still pretty mad, not about the shirt, well, okay, yeah. But I was mostly mad that a little kid can't respect my personal space. What _do_ they teach little kids these days?

"I promise." Her voice snapped me back to the present. I absently wrote my Chinese name on the window, my eyes staring sightlessly out the glass barrier, fingers still automatically petting Lola. I honestly didn't have many friends, I mean, do you expect me to be all sunny and social when people treat me like a nobody? Didn't think so.

Besides, usually my peers are either too "cool" to even look at me, just never noticed me, or they're too scared to even say hi in case I "accidentally" wind them up in the emergency room. Back when I was just an innocent little five year old, I hated physical violence. But the past eight years of continous whispers and back-stabbing have changed all that. It's not like I loved picking a fight, it's more like the punching and kicking have been moulded into me, an instinct I don't even think about. Because for me to survive at school, I needed a tough outer shell, one that screams _Don't you dare mess with me._ It's just a cover up though, not the real me, the authentic Jasmine that's caring, extremely sensitive, and cries a lot. No one other than Lola and Aunt Juniper have seen that side of my identity, mainly because, well, there really wasn't anyone I could show it to. Most of the time I feel...numb, detached to the day-to-day activites of other classmates, almost like one of those creepy looking souls on TV that just stare at you blankly. Am I creepy? Well, you could say that.

"Alright," I muttered, knowing we would be packing again after a few months. Mostly because I was friendless, an outsider with different ideas. In fact, Lola is actually the only one soul I've ever talked to. I believed in faeries and mythological animals. Don't judge me. In fact, I had a pretty solid reason why I believe in them. When I was little (Well, littler.), I saw a dryad. Not kidding. In fact, we would chat, and sing together. She didn't speak a word of english, chinese, or any other language I knew, but somehow I understood exactly what she was saying. Willow was really pretty, with her vine like dress and graceful ways. That was before we moved away. Still even earlier, when I could walk actually, I think I saw pixies, whenever I would go outside in the moonlight to dance my heart out, letting all the sorrowful feelings seep out of me in my frenzied whirls and leak out into the ground. Shaking my head, I sat up straighter as a huge sign appeared. In jet black letters, the green sign read, "Welcome to Oakwood."

**This is the prologue so far! I may not have a lot of time to write, but stay tuned for Chapter One! As always, comments are greatly appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 1: Hmm, New Beginnings?

**Chapter One: Hmm, New Beginnings?**

"So, how do you like our new home?" Aunt Juniper queried as our truck pulled into the spacious garage.

"I love it!" And it was actually true this time. The red-brick house was smaller than the other buildings in the neighborhood, but it seemed more homely and cosy than the huge intimidating houses towering over the young trees. The door was neatly painted a brilliant white, and the window frames were over flowing with pot after pot of cheerful periwinkles. Trailing vines of star jasmine climbed over one side of the house and curling over one clear glass window. Perfect.

"You like it Lola?" I asked her, hoisting her furry body up so she could get a full view. Wriggling her white button nose, Lola burrowed back into my chest, nuzzling my shirt happily.

"She seems to like our new home," Aunt Juniper laughed, patted Lola's fuzzy brown head. "Well come on Jasmine, those boxes sure aren't gonna move themselves!"

Ringggg! Rinnnnggggg! Ugh. I groaned and stretched. The first thing I saw through my bleary eyes was my crystal hummingbird windchime. Wait, it's in the wrong place. And the ceiling was the wrong color, it was brown wood, not powdery white... Slowy last week's events unscrambled themselves in my mind. Oh. How do you forget you moved into a new home? Not to mention for the 26th time? I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and looked around my new room. My favorite flowered wallpaper was up already, along with most of my furniture. Lola's new shiny play pen was in the corner, and I spied her furry brown rump sticking outta her sleeping hutch. Silly, sleepy bunny. I was lucky enough to get the bedroom with the star jasmines growing over on one side. Throwing open the sunny yellow curtains, I leaned out to spray some water into the ground near the roots. Inhaling the fragnant flowers, I looked outside to the neighborhood. Ms. Corral, our next door neighbor seemed nice enough. She brought us a tray of cookies when we got here, and Aunt Juniper greeted her as if she already knew her. Which, knowing my aunt, she probably did.

Now, I've had my fair share of unwelcome surprises everywhere I've moved. There was this particulary snooty girl who pretended to welcome us to the neighborhood. I'm pretty sure her name was Jessica. Anyways, on my first day in Elmcreek Elementary, she gave me a plastic rose, and I put it in my shirt pocket. Harmless, right? That's what I thought before I realized the petals were coated with red paint. Fresh paint. I went through my first day looking like I spilled tomato sauce all over my shirt. Talk about embarrassing! I had half expected the cookies to blow up or something.

Turns out they were more than just harmless, they were **delicious**! Go figure.

"Jasmine," my aunt called, "Hurry up, you're gonna be late for your first day in middle school!"

Oh my goshies, it's 7:45! I whirled around, memories forgotten, jerked my closet door open, and rushed in. Shaking out my knee-length, dark brown hair, I yanked my brush carelessly through my soft, long tresses, and put on the outfit I chose yesterday. I eyed myself in the mirror. Light green top, camo knee-length skort, and exactly three ulti-colored hair-ties on my right wrist. Decent and cute. I moaned when I spied my birthmark, not hidden at all by my T-shirt, but no time for that, I'm late! Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I ran downstairs and grabbed a bagel.

"Oh my! Jasmine, look at your hair!" Aunt Juniper exclaimed, rushing over to triple braid my hair. Hey, with locks that long, I seriously needed some way to avoid tripping over it.

"Nevermind, just braid it Ah Yi Ju Ning," I muttered in Chinese as she fussed over how they looked, "I'm going to be late if your triple braid it!" Quickly she twisted and jerked my hair into a neat braid in thirty seconds flat, looping a green leather hair tie at the end to secure it.

"Bye!" I shouted to my aunt as I rushed out the door and onto the bus. It was crowded and noisy, not to mention the smell in the air. All the front seats were filled. Sitting down at the back, I noticed I was sitting next to two girls. They both stared at my long locks, and I blushed, not meeting their eyes. "Hello," a soft voice said.

**And that's Chapter One. Short, I know, I'm kinda new to this writing thing. Reviews are very very welcome!**


	3. Chapter 2: I Feel Delusional

**Chapter Two: I Feel Delusional**

My head whipped up, and I glanced wildly around for the owner of the voice.I must have looked crazy with my head swiveling around like a bobble head.

"Over here silly!" came the melodic voice again, followed by a tinkling peal of laughter.

I looked down at my backpack, and there perched daintily on the handle, was a small humaniod creature. Oh, but what a sight!

She was beautiful, with long silky silver hair flowing down to her back. An elegant dark green gown made of leaves along with miniscule light pink flower petal slippers adorned her graceful figure. Two almond shaped, innocent green eyes much like the shade of mine stared at me, and right below the straight, freckle sprinkled nose was a stunning, friendly pink smile. Her ears were elvish, with little pointed tips that were twitching with curiosity. What really took my breath away were her wings. Long and graceful, her wings shimmered and sparkled in a rainbow of colors as she tilted her head this way and that. The translucent wings could well be compared to a diamond, with it's dazzling colors and flawless shape. A pixie.

Am I becoming delusional? It ceartinly felt like it. Here I am, on an overcrowded bus with sanitation problems, and humans shouting and screaming their heads off, while a pixie rests calmly on my backpack. Yup, totally normal.

"Are you Jasmine?" she trilled in her bell like voice, cocking her head ever so slightly to the right.

"Ye-yes," I stammered in astonishment. "What is your name, fair creature of the air?" I knew pixies loved to be praised, and this one was especially pleased. i could see it in the way her ears turned a bright red in pleasure at my words like a lightbulb.

"Evelyn," she replied, pulling out something from her hair. I peered closer, and realized Evelyn held a pin. She whizzed up and let the pin fall into my hands.

"It will help you later on,' she explained, glancing quickly out the window. "We will meet again Jasmine Hua." And with that, her wings fluttered, and she was gone.

I stared stupidly out the grimy window for about ten seconds. Finally, I gathered my wits and examined the pin. It was made of sturdy silver colored metal, with intricate designs of springtime engraved and outlined with gold. With shaking hands, I carefully tucked the precious treasure into my pockets, wrapping it in a napkin to protect it.

The ride to school was a silent one for me, full of questions unanswered.

**That was Chapter Two! Tune in for more! :D Reviews are as always very much appreciated! Thank you for reading!**


	4. Chapter 3: First Impressions

**Chapter Three: First Impressions**

The big bumbling bus pulled up on school grounds. One look, and I knew this school had been here a while.

Greystone Middle School had that kinda old timey look to it. No, there waasn't any candles, of course they have lightbulbs! More like the structure. The front had a huge grey stone arch that was decorated with cheerful banners like, "Welcome back Dragons!" and "Great to be Back!". Technically the stuff that makes you want to throw up. A stone statue of a regal dragon was placed right in the middle of the courtyard, and the path was that old-fashioned looking type of cobblestone. You know, the ones you see in old England movies. The overall shape of the building was pretty modern, a big ol' box, but with deep green ivy vines snaking across the outside walls. Students were milling about, chatting and catching up with their friends. I could clearly distinguish the groups. The burly jocks were in front of the dragon, the school mascot, laughing and pushing each other around. Some lanky track team kids were sitting on a wooden bench, while a group that are clearly the nerds were typing away at their calculators, with some solving Rubik's cubes in record time. As my eyes glanced over their group I particulary noticed a smaller boy sitting a little out of their group, frantically twisting and turning a four by four Rubik's cube. Odd, he looks familiar. Shaking my head, I picked out the other cliques. Lets see, the swimmers, the cheerleaders, and oh gods. Disgust and hate welled up inside me as my vision zeroed in. The 'popular' group. All the girls had the latest fashions, not that I care, and the guys were trying to show off by attemptng to climb up the dragon statue and spitting on it. Absolutely pathetic.

A metallic screech filled the air, tenderizing my ear drums and resulting in a second of silence among those in the front courtyard.

"Everybody out!" the driver shouted, jerking back a lever to open the doors. There was a whole lotta shoving and bumping as the students scrambled off the bus. The two girls that were sitting by me were already out the door, meeting up with another girl and walking off with big smiles on their faces. There goes my chance. I sighed and heaved my backpack off the sticky floor and hurried out as the bell rung.

The courtyard cleared before I could blink, and I sprinted into the school.

Apparently they were all about making new students get to their classes and save lots of embarrassment running around asking for directions to the front office because waiting right behind the doors was Mrs. Winge, the principal.

"Are you MuoLi Hua?" Thank goodness she pronounced my name right.

"Um, yes. And call me Jasmine," I added as an afterthought.

"Wonderful," she replied with a warm smile which I attempted to return.

The next few minutes were standard new school stuff, protocol, introductions, mini tour of school, schedules, lockers, you get the point.

Finally we stopped at a door in the math pod of sixth grade. On it was the name, "Mrs. Raq," my math teacher.

"Alright Jasmine, here's your first period. I trust you will have a good day yes? If you have any problems do not hesitate to contact me or get help from any of the faculty. Have a nice day!" With that, I entered the classroom.

I was part of the Academically Sucessful, or AS, classes, so it didn't really surprise me that the room was filled with all sorts of educational posters and junk. What did surprise me was the number of students in there. Normally, the AS classes were relatively small, but the room looked full to bursting. Great, just what I needed.

My first impression of Mrs. Raq was friendly. Her style was quite colorful, with a green shirt that had a cartoon dragon on it, a pair of jeans, tie dyed hair band, and jeweled earrings. She looked European, with a pale complexion, and short blonde hair, along with blue eyes.

''Hello my dear," Mrs. Raq greeted me, "welcome to Greystone Middle School!"

Naturally, that caught the attention of every person in the room, and I felt the heat flooding into my cheeks.

"Hmm, it sees all the seats are filled. You'll have to sit with him then," she said briskly, gesturing to an empty seat next to a boy with black hair bent over something. Oh goshies. It was the boy I saw in the courtyard. A strange tingle ran up my back as I walked towards the table. He glanced briefly up, and suddenly his face scrunched up. Gasping, he looked about to fall out of his chair as he frantically moved to the far end of the table as my classmate snickered at his reaction.

I knew people would be unfriendly, but that bad? Gagging, almost tumbling out of his seat, and now moving as far away as he possibly can, this was just too much. What, did I smell bad or something?

**That's Chapter Three! Please review, it helps me know if anyone likes it or not. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 4: AS Math NOT!

**Chapter 4: Academically Sucessful in Math. Not!**

"Dominic Garcia?" Mrs. Raq called, scrolling down through roll call.

"Here!"

I sighed and doodled in my notebook as she drawled on, occasionally glancing at my table partner. His name was on a whole bunch of notebooks, wow, must be one of those academically tough people. Stephen Wei. Hmm. I scooted my chair a little closer, and underneath some notes, he had written his Chinese name. I've never learned those characters before... But they looked, familiar somehow.  
Looking back up at Mrs. Raq, I noticed that her eyebrows were furrowed deeply, and her eyes wide. Basically, she looked like she was about to throw up. Three to one she had stumbled upon a Chinese name.

"Reeocheng?"

I almost burst out laughing like a donkey on caffeine while she tried unsuccessfully to pronounce the name amidst hidden laughter from the other Chinese people in the class.

"Stephen," my table partner called out wearily, shuffling his papers to hide his embarrassment as the whole class giggled their heads off. At least I had the common sense not to make him feel weird. Soon it'll be my turn, yup, so looking forward to it.

"Right," Mrs. Raq said, "um."She squinted at the name. Oh no.

"Mooli Hooa?"

It was Stephen's turn to stifle his laughter, spasms shaking his body, as Mrs. Raq tried all sorts of different pronunciations. None of them were right. What is up with Chinese names being so hard to pronounce? I mean, some of them are pretty hard to spell out, but I thought mine was pretty straight forward. MuoLi Hua. You can pronounce that, right?

"Jasmine," I answered, heat flooding to my cheeks as my math class was consumed into giggle fits. 6 more periods of this, and I'll go to Hades.

After the relatively disastrous roll call episode, the moment of dread was here. I had to introduce my self to the whole class. I've switched schools so much that I pretty much memorized the whole "welcome to the class" speech. That didn't make me any less nervous. Might as well get it over with, I thought as I stood up and walked to the front of the room.

"Hi. My name is Jasmine Hua, and-"

"How do you pronounce your real name, China girl?" Somebody interrupted rudely at the back of the class, sparking snickers all around the class. Mrs. Raq stared pointedly at him, and glanced back at me.

"Sorry sweetie, please continue. We'll ask questions after."I carefully pronounced my Chinese name, and continued.

"And I'm NOT from China," I said, glaring at the guy who called me China girl, "I'm actually from Malaysia, so I'm Malaysian Chinese."  
My classmates all looked at me like I just spoke in pig Latin, all except for Stephen and this other brainy looking kid.

"Anyway," I continued after the awkward staring, "I live with my Aunt Juniper, and I've moved a grand total of twenty three times."

Most of the kids looked like they got slapped in the face at this, but I was used to it.

"I've been in AS, honors, GT, etc ever since I started school. I do gymnastics, archery, swimming, and I'm planning to join the track team next year." At that a few of the trackish looking kids rolled their eyes, and while some cheerleader type girls had that mildly interested look on their face. I never exactly planned on cheer leading, I guess I could nail it since I'm great at gymnastics. As for those smug jocks, watch out in PE, I'll wipe that smirk off your sorry faces quick as I can run.

"I have a pet rabbit named lola, she's very sweet, and is 6 years old. Any questions?" A couple of hands were raised in the air like flags the way they were waving their arm around.

"Alrighty then, we'll go in order. Sarah?"

"Where are your parents from?" she asked curiously. Stephen looked like he was about to choke. About the same as me, this was always a touchy subject to talk about.

I finally mustered up the courage to say, "I don't have parents. They supposedly died in a car crash when I was three. I live with my Aunt Juniper now, I never knew them." Mrs. Raq had her hand over her heart in a sympathetic gesture. I flashed her a small smile to say it's okay for Sarah to ask the question. The rest of the class, including Sarah, looked like they got punched again, this time in the guts. To my relief, everyone with their hand raised lowered their arm. Looks like I answered their question.

"Wonderful Jasmine," Mrs. Raq commented as she dismissed me back to my seat. "Now I know some of you may not have learned simple algebra yet, so I'll come around to see who needs to learn it." Algebra? Oh great, just absolutely marvelous. I'll start out sixth grade here with a bad rep in math.  
Mrs. Raq wrote out an equation on the board. The class winced as her Expo marker squeaked and squealed across the white board. 8x+4/2=34. I suppose it was easy, because most of the kids were done with all the work in ten seconds flat. I sighed as I worked my way sluggishly through the equation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is AS math class, but I'm not good at it. Seriously, how did I even get into AS math?! My pencil finally assisted me into finishing it. x=6

"Seven. X equals seven, not six." Someone said quietly behind me. I was instantly overcome by a wave of sudden nausea, and I had to grip the wooden table with both hands before turning around. Stephen was looking over my shoulder, and he was half smiling in the not so nice way to himself. Bet you he was thinking, "Wow, can't believe she doesn't know this simple stuff, how did she even get in this class?" The jerk. It's not like I went up to my genes and asked to be naturally horrible at math. I looked over at his work paper, and it was blank. Seriously, mental work?

"Here look," he said, reaching for my pencil. The moment he touched my pencil, an electrifying shock ran up my arm. The nausea disappeared for a second, but then my body registered the pain.

"Ow!" I almost yelled, yanking my hand back. He froze, pencil hovering uncertainly over my paper.

"Sorry," he apologized hastily, concern in his pitch black eyes as he leaned back away from me. The nauseous feeling went away, and I went over my rather messy work again. Oh. Calculation mistake, again. Dang he was smart. I scrubbed out my answer and replaced the five with a six.

"Told you," I heard Stephen mutter under his breath. Glancing over at him, I noticed the half smile was back on again, which quickly evaporated as I glared at him.

"Hey, I said I was sorry," his soft voice taking on a hard edge of defensiveness.

"I know," I shot back curtly, biting off the words, "but do you feel sorry? Oh, and thank you for your unasked help." His face was a mask of shock that quickly turned to anger as Mrs. Raq handed out the worksheets,and checked over everyone's work.

"I didn't have to help you. If you're fine on your own, so be it," he retorted, his eyes flashing with frustration, and scooted his chair to the other end of the table.  
The rest of the class time was spent in complete, utter silence for both of us, tension cracking the space between. When the bell rang, I refused to even glance at him as I stalked swiftly out the door, crushing down my feelings of guilt.

**I haven't uploaded in a while, I know, I was in Yellowstone, obviously no Internet there. Please review, it helps me know once again wether people like my story or not! Thanks again, and stay tuned for Chapter Five! :D**


	6. Chapter 5: Friend at Last

**Chapter Five: Friend at Last.**

I hurried down the crowded hallway, being jostled and pushed and shoved every step I took like a much abused rag doll. Finally, I reached my locker. Spinning my finger aching, nine character combination, I glanced to my side at my locker buddy. Rule number one, always try to make friends with your locker buddy. Turns out I didn't need to.  
"Hey, you're Jasmine right? Welcome to Greystone! My name is Natalie Satara Brande by the way. Nice hair you have, green eyes for you? Wow, it's really rare isn't it? Especially your shade." Friendly, much? Big surprise considering how well Brrok and Stephen turned out.  
I remember those wild curly locks of dirty blonde hair from math. Natalie had a pale face with small shallows under her flashing golden eyes, kinda like that antique porcelain doll my aunt has, minus the honey colored eyes, crazy hair, and small bags. Natalie's tone sounded cheerful enough, but the corners of her lips were only lifted ever so slightly in a tight lipped smile. She wore dark blue flare jeans with magenta one star sneakers, and a red t-shirt with a cute Labrador puppy. Slung over her shoulder was a bulky, sparkly red book bag, and she was pulling out various novels out of her locker while she was talking.  
"Er, yeah. Thanks, and, um, nice middle name," I replied awkwardly. Goshies, I sound like a complete dork.  
"Oh, thanks!" She said brightly, "You are so lucky! You get the smartest boy in the whole grade as your table partner in math! Mrs. Raq never let's anyone sit with him, because back in fifth grade, they just copied off of his paper. Of course, he got fed up of it and told the teacher. But now you're his partner! Girl, you are so LUCKY!" Natalie commented with a jealous gleam in her eyes.  
Oh joy, I get paired up with the smartest person in the grade, who apparently hates me, while he gets stuck with the dumbest girl in math in the whole grade. And another happy meeting. No wonder he doesn't like me.  
"Not really, he doesn't like me," I mumbled, then realized my words sounded all wrong.  
"Oh my gosh, you like him!" Natalie squealed, "and on your first day too! Ohmygosh Omygosh, this is just so sweet!"  
"No!" I retorted, my cheeks visibly flushing with color. "Of course not! Why in my right mind would I freaking like HIM?! He's a walking nightmare!"  
"Fine, but you two look absolutely ADORABLE together!" she sang teasingly as she walked off.  
I rolled my eyes, and ran off to my next class. "See you later," I called back over my shoulder. I so do NOT like him, in fact, just the opposite. I absolutely loathe that boy. Not to mention for some odd reason he makes me feel like fainting, a big no no on your first day, along with other various things like getting beat up, tripping over your own feet all the time, acting really smart, and spilling your lunch all over yourself. The second one got me named ClumClum, third named me China Brain, and the last obtained me an extension of ClumClum,which then became Lunch ClumClum. First? Basically I got used as a punching bag for some of the guys for the whole semester of third grade. Reaching Mrs. Adders's, my science teacher, door, I yanked it open and got inside just as the tardy bell buzzed over the school.  
"Oh hello! You must be our new student! Lets find you your lab partner shall we?" Mrs. Adders breezed in her British accent. "You can sit next to Brooklyn, alright dear?" I reluctantly sat down in the seat next to her. She was texting someone on her iPhone, her brown hair making a curtain around her shoulders. She wore a blue Abercrombie shirt, and turquoise Nike shorts. One look, and the first thought I had was rebel. As class started, with Mrs. Adders droning on and on about "fascinating" plant cells, I asked hesitantly,  
"Um, Brooklyn, aren't those shorts a little too, well, short?"  
She glanced up from her phone, and I almost gasped in shock at her stunning aquamarine eyes compared to her slightly Asian features.  
"I know. And call me Brook, not Brooky, not Brookly, not Lyn, especially not Brooklyn, or any of those other stupid nicknames people make up for me." Brook replied, rolling her eyes.  
"Okay? And I'm pretty sure your shorts are out of dress code," I said, looking at her unbelievably revealing shorts.  
She looked up again, and this time her blue eyes had a determined hardness in them. "Well, I can wear whatever I want. Who cares about dress code, the rules are stupid anyway. Besides, it is America isn't it?" And with that, she returned to texting whoever on her phone. Sigh. A table partner that hates me, and one that apparently still doesn't know my name.

Well, at least I'm not as clueless in science as I am in math. The usual speech, adding in that I've been to state for National Lab Day before. I earned a couple of death glares at that, gee, wonder why. I probably already look like a smart kid anyway, yahoo for me. We studied the structure of cells in class, easy as breathing. The activity though I was grateful for, because Brook had to talk to me to get anything done. Although our conversation usually went:  
"Hey Jasmine."  
"Yes?"  
"Where do the chloroplasts go on the cell again?"  
"It's a plant cell. You just basically put them anywhere but near the nucleus."  
"Oh. Thanks"  
That was pretty much it for the rest of the time. Downright depressing for me to be used as a human textbook. It was like all of my answers were programmed. Relief washed over me when the bell rang for lunch, if I had to have one more one sided conversation on where do the ribosomes go on the animal cell, I am going to scream. Then again, lunch as the new girl wasn't exactly a blissful experience either, kinda the opposite.  
When I got to my locker, I half hoped Natalie would invite me to sit with her at lunch. So wrong. All she said was, "Well, I'll see you around Jasmine," before slamming her blue locker door shut and merging into the stampede of students. Slumping down my shoulders, I carefully stacked my books in my locker and yanked out my light green bag with all my PE stuff inside before hurrying down to the lunch line.

**Chapter Five for ya! Once again, I think you're tired of this, PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. Chapter 6: Lunch Torture

**Chapter Six: Lunch Torture**

Forget what I said about math being one of my most awkward moments, lunch definitely won the prize. Throughout the whole waiting in line time, people kept on shooting looks at me like I was contagious or something. Not even a hi was uttered, most after the inspection and figured I was a nobody, pretty close to the truth, just jumped right back into what ever they were doing before. It was like I was the eye of a hurricane of chatter and mindless conversations. The annoying part was that I was sandwiched between these two giggly girls that kept on talking over me like I was just a human prop. Plus every six seconds one of them would squeal right into my extremely sensitive ear at whatever the other one said. Do you know how annoying that is? Worst thing? The food. Repeat, the food, not the drinks or snacks, the food. My main course consisted of a blob that vaguely looks like the remains of a tuna paste, a hunk of rock hard bread, and the chef's surprise. Pretty sure it was a bad surprise, 'cause what they put in there was brown, disgusting, and seemed partly alive. I actually got as much distance between myself and my tray as possible without dropping it. Yum.  
The snacks and drinks were a whole other hand. Every single junky food my aunt absolutely does not tolerate in the house was lined up on the rack like priceless treasures you see in musuems. Even so, the only thing I got from it were two chocolate chip cookies. Hey, cookies are cookies. Drinks were mostly sugary too, just looking at them made me on low power sugar high. Think that's why Aunt Juniper doesn't allow it near me. Once again, I played good little girl and only picked out the apple juice. I was fishing for a dime in my straw woven wallet when the same nauseous feeling crashed onto me in math class. Except in a more relaxed form, but also felt cold and unfriendly. It felt like frost was slowly but surely winding around my heart. Finally spying a shiny dime in the small pocket of my purse, I handed over my money, all the while keeping my head down. I had trouble balancing my tray and holding my gym bag at the same time. So I had no choice, I had to look up to manage to get to a table without falling and making a fool of myself. That's when I noticed that it wasn't Stephen. Actually, whoever was emitting that aura was probably sent straight from the Fields of Punishment.  
"Hello sugar, having trouble?"  
Definitely from my worst nightmares. My eyes took in a whole posse of smirking, giggling popular cheerleaders. The girl who spoke was for sure one of the most popular girls in the school. Perhaps even the district. She had on a spotless white cheerleader outfit outlined in sparkly silver sequins with a ridiculously short frilled skirt, and her cornsilk platinum blonde hair was tied back into a perfect ponytail with a pink ribbon. A dozen chunky white bracelets were on her wrists, and a perfectly manicured hand clutched a Vera Bradley purse with rhinestones glued onto it. As for her face, lets just say she looked like a flawless Barbie doll with a seriously deadly smirk.  
"Oh wait, aren't you the new girl? Don't worry little dearie, I'll send some of my, well, friends to keep you company, how about that pumpkin?" she suggested with a malicious smile.  
I could tell it was fake, her voice absolutely dripped with synthetic honey and sugar, and she had a very fake looking sweet smile on her face.  
"No thanks. I have friends," I replied firmly, even though I was lying through my teeth.  
Her icy blue eyes narrowed menacingly when she realized I wasn't exactly bowing down to her perfection while her cheer robots gasped in shock at my denial. The coldness gripped me harder, and by this time, every breath was strained. This is pathetic, even a three year old could detect the scathing sarcasm in her voice.  
"Oh no sweetie, I insist. In fact, we don't take no for an answer," she said with the same creepy smile, her tone leaking into an acidic threat at the end.  
I didn't have time to ask who was "we" when she turned on her heel and sashayed off to one of the cleaner tables, her minions running after her with their hands full of her stuff. Like I said, pathetic. Muttering under my breath, I picked up my tray and stomped off to an empty table.  
Plopping myself down on a chair, I tried to eat the slab of bread after devouring the scrumptious cookies. Picture trying to chew a grainy chunk of sedimentary rock, and you have a pretty good idea of what I was attempting to eat. At least the tuna blob was edible, it actually wasn't that bad. A little tasteless, but it's food, and I was ravenous.  
"Hey Jasmine."  
I recognized Brook's voice, and I saw her, Natalie, and this other girl. I was so busy trying to chew the bread that I didn't notice them sitting down at my table. Why would they come all the way here to sit with me, I dunno.  
Natalie scooted closer and began, "Thought we might warn you. That girl-"  
"That demon in a miniskirt more like," Brook interrupted, her tone merely suggesting that they didn't get on good terms. Merely.  
"Whatever," Natalie sighed, rolling her eyes, "She's Kate, one of the most popular girls in the school." Natalie continued, then paused and suggestively nudged Brook.  
"Don't be fooled by her sweet talk, she's got a venomous ritual to keep neighborhood newbies like you in their place," Brook said, her hand slowly curling into a fist. "My cousin Sabrina here can tell you how to-Jasmine, duck!"  
Suddenly, a large meaty hand grabbed me by the shirt, and dragged me off my chair. The neck of my shirt was pulled up uncomfortably against my neck, and I thrashed and kicked while the other students looked on sadly, helpless.  
"Drop her!" Brook all but yelled, leaping to her feet, eyes blazing with anger. Sabrina and Natalie gripped their forks and prepared to go and run for help. If it was a different situation, I would have laughed at their panicked expressions. But I didn't want their help. I needed to show the school exactly what this girl is made of.  
"Stay outta this punks, besides, lil' Green Eyes here needs a dose of my medicine, don't you Shrimp?" A deep gravelly voice hissed in my ear as he raised me up a little higher adding to the restricting pressure at my throat. I wisely stayed quiet, all the while glaring with full force at the jock. He was buff in that football way, and smelled kinda like a combination of gym socks and expired fish. His buddies weren't any better, both were laughing gleefully at my outraged look and calling me many names that I'm pretty sure you don't want to know.  
"Lets give her the special treatment, shall we Jake?" One of his friends suggested with an evil glint in his eyes.  
Laughing, they dragged me over, and shoved me up against the walls, chuckling darkly.  
"Now listen here Shrimp, the school is ours. Stay out of our way, or we'll send you back to China the hard way, got it? No one messes with us, you go by our rules and Kate, or you'll pay the price of your right arm"  
Paralyzed with fear, I was about to wholeheartedly agree when I caught sight of Kate with a big ol' smirk on her face. That did it.  
"No."  
His eyes bugged out for a second, but then twisted into a mask of anger. Grabbing the front of my shirt, he demanded slowly, "What did you say Green Eyes?"  
"NO!" I yelled loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear, kicking his gut with full force. He dropped me like a sack of rice, and I took that moment to seize his leg and yank it forcefully out under him. The blood rushed into my ears creating a loud ringing sound as the lug lost his balance and fell to the ground, dazed as I kicked his sides for good measure. Gasps ran around the room as the students stared at his motionless body on the ground.  
His buddy ran over and tried to grab me, but I was too quick, swerving out of the way, and swinging my leg to his side. As soon as he stopped trying to catch me, I gave him a nice big knuckle sandwich right between his eyes, leaving back a bruise. Staggering back, he crashed into the other wall, then struggled back on his feet.  
"Who's next?" I growled, spinning around and facing the other thug, the exhilaration of a fight coursing through my body. Man, what Aunt Juniper said was true. Men are wimps, these took one look at the fallen lump on the ground and took off running rambling about radioactive spiders like baby puppies. Panting hard, I turned back toward my table, probably looking like I was crazy or something. Walking over to my seat, I sat down amidst a sea of open mouths, wide eyes, and in Kate's case, looks of pure fury.  
"So, you were saying Brook?" I asked politely, grinning at her and everyone else's dumbfounded expression. Her look changed into grudging respect, as cheers erupted from around the cafeteria, and she said, "Hey, you got spunk kid. Welcome to Greystone's resistance."  
Just then, the bell ended lunch. I could feel eyes burning into my back as I dumped my tray, and almost everyone made a wide arch around me as I headed off to PE.

**That was Chapter Six for y'all! Once again, I would really appreciate it if you would review! Just a simple "good story" would make my day! :D**


	8. Chapter 7: Pacer is Fun

**Chapter Seven: Pacer is Fun**

As soon as I opened the door to the locker rooms, my ears were tortured by a long shrill whistle.

"Alright girls, sixth graders line up on the left, seventh and eighth grade on the right."

Dragging along my gym bag, I reached the long winding line when I saw a pale hand waving at me. One step closer and I spied Natalie's curly blonde hair. Hurrying over, I noticed Brook, Sabrina, and yet another girl there.

"Jasmine, meet Emma, fastest girl here," Natalie introduced, gesturing to Emma.

She angled her head towards me with interest, blue grey eyes flashing. Emma had a fair face, with a sprinkle of freckles across her nose, and slightly flushed cheeks. Her blue, almond shaped eyes searched mine, and a glimmer of reconization lit up her eyes. Golden orange silky hair reached down to the middle of her back, and I noticed a gold pin holding up her bangs. As I peered closer, shock rang into my mind. Oh goshies. It looked almost exactly like the pin Evelyn gave me. I looked back up at her face, and I swear, I think she winked at me. I positively knew what happened next did happen. Glancing around, Emma lifted up her hair to reveal slightly pointy ears. I gasped and looked at her with wide eyes. She nodded and gave me a look that said, "Our little secret."  
Just to add to the effect, I made a cross over my heart.

"Congrats on nailing those insolent hooligans," Emma said with a smile, "They needed a taste of their own medicine."

"Thanks," I replied, suddenly aware of a dull ache on my feet and fingers. Looking down, I realized my hands, still in fists, were turning slightly pink, and becoming quite sore. Oh well, I'm used to it anyways, it's not like I've never been in a fight before.

Reaching the front of the line, Coach Dellen handed me my new locker combination with a smile and, "Welcome to Greystone."

I smiled back before searching for my locker. Let's see, 915, 916, 917-are you kidding me? I looked up incredulously at the stout grey metal box that was my locker, 917. Top locker. This is going to be interesting, I thought as I clambered up the concrete bench to reach it. I looked down at the girl with a middle locker below me. She was pretty tall, enough to reach my locker without using the bench...

"Um, do you mind switching lockers?" I asked tentatively.

She looked up at my locker and shrugged, "Sure, why not. You probably need this locker more than I do. Oh, and good job handling Jake and his friends back there," she added with a twinkle in her eye.

Thanking her, we switched combos and started unpacking our stuff. Ugh, these gym clothes are so overly big and baggy on me, not to mention dorky. It consisted of dark green cotton shorts that reached down below my knees with a really sad looking dragon on it, and a light gray shirt with ginormous letters written across the front spelling "Greystone!" I looked like I bought my clothes two sizes too big. This is going to be interesting. Sighing, I reached back to tighten my leather band securing my long thick braid down to my waist. At least the ridiculously long sleeves covred my leaf shaped birthmark, I' surprised no one asked about it yet. Stuffing the rest of my, well, stuff in my locker, I slammed the door shut and looked for Brook and the others.

"Jasmine, over here."

I glanced back and saw Emma waving me over to the closet. As soon as I walked in, she shut the door and switched on the light.

"You're part elf!" I blurted out before slapping my hand over my mouth.

"Yes, I know," she replied with a smile to my surprise. "And you can see faeries can't you?"

I was shocked at how bluntly she could talk of this, but I managed to say,"Well, yeah."

"For how long?" She queried, sitting down on an overturned bucket.

"I don't know. Ever since I was born I guess," I said, shrugging nonchalantly and leaning against a shelf.

"You do know how you got the Sight right?" She asked mysteriously.

"Kind of. Someone along the line was switched, right?"

"Exactly. In my case, I have direct elf blood in me" she said, "my father, Johan, fell in love with my mother, Nynari. I got my shade of hair from her, and my eyes."

"What happened to them?" As soon as I said it, deep down I knew the answer was not going to be pretty.

She bowed her head down and whispered sadly, "Love between two races were forbidden in my mother's troop. Both of my parents were exiled into the human world, and my mother died there. My dad...he couldn't take it, and eventually passed away when I was five. The doctor said from a heart attack years later, but I'm pretty sure it was heartbreak. I was adopted by Thymarra. She's a great mom to me, but I wish I could have known my real mom. This pin is all I have left of her."

"I'm sorry," I sympathized, "I know how it feels." Shaking her head as if to clear away her memories, Emma sat up and suddenly her eyes semed to unfocus on her surroundings.

Emma tilted her head to the door, "We should go, Coach Dellen is about to blow her whistle."

"How do you know-"

Peeeeeeeeeeppppppp! "Go to the small gym girls!"

Emma grinned at me before opening the door and streaming out the doors. I followed suit, realizing most people were still making a circle around me.

"Am I the only one who stood up to them?" I asked Brook as we sat down in the bleachers.

"Who? Oh, you mean Jake and his buffoons?" Brook scoffed, "No, but you were the first to get out without a bruise."

"Really? What about you?" I questioned incredulously.

Brook shook her head ruefully, "Nope. They gave me a small bruise on my knee. That was about it though. The jock you frightened off without leaving a mark is Eddie, the most cowardly. Jake made a bad choice of minions today. Emma, you, and I are they only girls who actually stood up at fought. Poor Sabrina had no idea what was going on, so she said yes. Big mistake, they make their mark on you to make you remember what would happen if you get in their way." According to what she said, looks like I got the better end of the deal. Watching Sabrina, I spotted a small but visible scar on the side of her arm. Poor Sabrina.

"And how many boys?" I asked uneasily.

"A little more, still not a lot. Lets see, Adrian, Rex, Flinn, Gerrold, and of course," she added with a mischievous gleam in her eyes and a smirk, "your little boyfriend Stephen."

"He's not my boyfriend!" I yelled, shoving her shoulder, "I hate him!" I couldn't understand the mix of emotions running through me. Hate? Resention?

"That's what they all say!" She sang gleefully, making love hearts with her hands.

"Seriously Brook, I don't even know him!" I insisted, blushing like crazy for the fifth time today. What is wrong with me?

Her smirk grew wider, and she commented, "Math table partner?"

Natalie! I wanted to go and strangle her with my bare hands when the dreaded whistle rang through the air.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you where to sit according to your last name, and this is your roll call spot for the rest of the year, where you will sit when I dismiss you from the locker room. Remember where your line is and who you sit by, got it? Okay, good."Coach Dellen started calling out names and directing them to spots.

"Natalie Brande, here." She was in the first line, and waved at me. Coach Dellen kept ticking off names and pointing to empty spots in the lines.

"Hua, your spot," she called, tapping at a spot in the line. Great, I was surrounded by people I don't even know.

"Brooklyn Raine, sit here!" She directed, gesturing to the place diagonal to where I was sitting. Sabrina had a space right after Brook, which means she was right next to me. Whew, now I won't have to spend the next few minutes just sitting there in an ocean of chatter and giggles. If I'm not part of it, sometimes I get headaches, or my head starts throbbing from all the noise unless I'm distracted. Which, in this case, is talking.

"So what is it like around here?" I asked them, curious to know.  
Brook and Sabrina exchanged looks and said at the same time, "Its okay." I rolled my eyes, that's what I always get when I ask someone what the neighborhood is like. After eight years of getting the exact same answer, I've pretty much had it.

"No really guys, how's the neighborhood? Are there people I need to watch out for?"

Brook shifted uncomfortably, switching positions every few seconds. "Well, you know Kate and Jake. They're half cousins, and Kate's right hand girl is Claire. Both are venomous serpents disguised with the glamour of popularity. Those are the only three that would make road kill outta you. Rest are pretty decent, not half as nice as you though, but watch out if you can run faster than Flinn. He can't stand a girl beating him. He's not the fastest boy though, I guess you'll be okay."

I almost relished seeing his expression if I beat him, along with the rest of the guys.

"Oh," Sabrina added, "also, don't ever mess with Stephen during PE. He looks pretty much harmless, but almost wanted to strangle Brook last year for bossing him around on the court."

"Your boyfriend won't hurt you will he?" Brook gloated, nudging Sabrina.

"Stop saying he's my boyfriend! I HATE him!" I protested rather loudly, pushing Brook's side.

Peeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppp! "Listen up girls! Our motto in here is, "Get fit, and stay fit!" You got it? I know it's your first day here, but it's traditional at Greystone to see exactly what you can do."A whole clog of girls looked over my way at the end. Kinda embarrassing if you think about it.

"In this case, Drags pride ourselves in running, so we're going to run the pacer today alright?" My heart did cartwheels at that, pacer is so easy!  
"In order to get a hundred, you must run at least fifty four laps. We've posted charts telling your grade according to how much you've ran in the big gym. Any questions? Great, grab your water bottles and head on over to the big gym!"

Grabbing my water bottle, I joined Emma as we streamed out the doors.  
"How many can you run Emma?"

She looked back at me and replied with a grin, "Up till ninety. With my magic of course." I grimaced, no wonder she can run so fast.

"That's not fair, why can't you try it without your magic?"

"Oh fine fine fine, I'll try it," she relented, "but I still think I can run faster than you Jasmine," She added. We'll see about that Emma, I thought smugly as we entered the boy's gym.

"Why the girls?"  
"Ugh, they reek of perfume Coach Ives!"  
"They'll mess us up!"  
"This mob is the shame of the school!"

"Be quiet!" A loud voice rang out over the complaints. Walking up to the lines of boys, a big, buff looking man with balding hair glared reproachfully at the whining boys. "There will be no complaining in here. I know some of these girls from orientation, and they could beat most of you, got it? The rest? Give them a chance. Dragons don't whine about sharing the track, and lets not start now. Any whining will get you a nice big signature slap on your behavior sheet, am I clear?"

"Yes Coach Ives," the boys muttered, some still grimacing at us.

"Good. Alright, seventh and eighth graders, both boys and girls, you'll start first!" Coach Ives shouted before switching the radio on. I've ran the pacer so much that I pretty much memorized the pacer songs. Doesn't make it any less annoying, almost all of us groaned as the really just horrible pop, lyric less music blared from the speakers.

Natalie sat down next to me in the wooden bleachers, and asked, "So how many can you do Jasmine? I can only get up to 30 on my lucky days, I get a 90. You?"

"Um, well," I stuttered, not wanting her to feel bad, "okay fine, I can run up to 88."

Her eyes widened, and she exclaimed, "Seriously? You can kick Jake senseless, and now I find out you can run faster than Flinn? What is wrong with you, are you on steroids or something?!"

"No! Of course not! I guess it's just me, plus swimming helps with my stamina."  
Natalie and I just kinda small talked the rest of the time, first about math homework, then about our families (she mostly talked on this one, not much to say about me.), and finally about the general gist of our life. After the speaker called out 73 though, I pretty much ran outta things to talk about. Except for the one topic I so do not even want to think about.

"So Jasmine, do you like anybody?" She said, nudging me with a big wide grin. Before I could shoot back an extremely frustrated reply, the shrill whistle echoed into my ears.

"Sixth grade boys and girls, come on down!" Really, just up to 74? Those eighth graders are absolutely pathetic.

Sighing, I clambered down the stairs, being bumped every step. Looks like my few minutes of personal space was over.

Finally reaching the shiny, laminated gym floor, I was pushed back all the way to the invisible border between boys and girls. The sixth grade guys were eyeing me like I was a dangerous wolf or something. Although considering what happened at lunch, I don't blame them for being just a teensy bit cautious. Okay, fine, some of them a lot. I nervously tightened my braid as the announcer started the intro.

"On you mark, get ready, start!" His overly cheerful voice bounced off the walls as we jogged over to the other side of the gym. It took a decade for the beep to sound, and this went on till lap number seven. This is going to me a long run indeed.

I couldn't believe my eyes, people were getting out at twenty. TWENTY! I wasn't even panting yet, those girls aren't even trying! By the time I ran up to forty two, Emma, Brook, Sabrina, and I were the only girls still running. My breath was coming in gasps now, and Sabrina's legs looked about to give out under her, they were kind of quivering as she ran. Even Emma was starting to get tired, biting her lip in determination, while streams of sweat ran down Brook's face.

"Beep! Fifty-four." I made it! Sabrina skidded to a stop right in front of the bleachers, and literally collapsed onto Brook's very surprised shoulder. I was still going strong though, so was Emma. Her cheeks were turning red when the announcer called out sixty two, and tiny beads of sweat were scattered across her forehead. I'm pretty sure I didn't look any better. Sneaking a quick glance over the imaginary boundary, I noticed only two boys were still running, no idea who though. My brain was focused solely on getting enough oxygen to keep on running, and urging my legs to move. The dull ache in my feet quickly turned into a full blown soreness as the number seventy two rang out. I think my luck ran out right about then, because a huge wave of gut lurching nausea gripped my soul, almost making me stumble.

Gasping, out of the corner of my eye I saw Stephen still running, his jaw set in solid determination. Only the wide set of his eyes betrayed that he was apparently feeling faint as well. It was getting harder to keep on going every second, and the nausea isn't exactly helping. When the announcer said 80, I was ready to really pass out all over the floor. Lurching forward, I touched the wall a split second before the radio beeped. Flinn wasn't so lucky, he got out at 82. Satisfaction coursed through my body, giving me strength, when Flinn was met with a whole bunch of boos from all the other guys. Stephen and Emma I had to beat still. The wall blurred in front of my eyes as I reached 85, and out of the corner of my eye I vaguely noticed Emma walking back to the bleachers. She was out? I barely had time to register that before another wave of nausea crashed over me, deftly making me gag. At eighty six, Stephen finally gave up and stopped running, his sides heaving and face red.

"Eighty eight!" Yes! A cheer exploded from the girls side of the gym as the other guys just stared at me. This was like lunch all over again. I tried to smile when a lot of people congratulated me, but to tell the truth, I was so exhausted that even breathing took effort. Draining away the contents of my water bottle, I heard rather than saw Emma walk up to me.

"Nice job Jasmine. Looks like you can beat me after all," she admitted with a huge smile. I was about to say thanks when suddenly my throat constricted, and my stomach roiled.

"Hey Stephen," Emma said guardedly, placing a hand on my shoulder to steady me, "Breaking the rules huh?"

He nodded at her, and turned to me. "Congrats out there Jasmine," he said hesitantly, as if bracing himself. I didn't care right now, all I wanted to do was to stop my self from losing my lunch.

Emma looked at Stephen with a hint of anger in her eyes, "Stephen, you might want to step away from Jasmine right now."

Right then, the bell rang for fourth period. Grateful for this chance to get away, i all but ran into the locker room and changed at lightning speed. The knot of dicomfort was slowly dissolving away as I trudged to my ELA class.

**Thanks readers, I hope you enjoyed Chapter Seven! :D**


	9. Chapter 8: First Day Early Dismissal?

**Chapter Eight: Early Dismissal on Your First Day?**

Rushing in just as the bell rang, Mrs. Rue, my ELA teacher, greeted me with a warm smile, and asked me if I would like to introduce myself to the class. Just by asking wether I would like to go over the whole speech again, I could tell we were going to get along.

"Well actually Mrs. Rue," I stated carefully, "most of my classmates were in my other classes, so they've already heard my introduction already."

"Alright then, there are three seats leftover from orientation, go ahead and pick your seat darling."

Looking around the room, I spied Emma's gleaming orange hair right next to an empty desk. I walked over and plopped myself in the seat, pulling out my brand new pencils. She grinned at me, then reverted her attention to Mrs. Rue, who was saying something or the other about a worksheet that was due tomorrow. Suddenly, Emma's eyes went blank, and her face seemed to space out of time.

"Emma?" I asked nervously, poking her shoulder, "What exactly are you listening to?" As quickly as it came, the vacant look vanished leaving behind a happy and greatly relived look in her eyes. She angled her head towards the speakers, and muttered, "Three, two, one-"

Beeeeppppppp! Mrs. Rue started, and glanced up with surprise at the speakers, "Yes?"

Mrs. Winge's voice crackled over the announcer, "Would you please send Brooklyn Raine, Sabrina Raine, Natalie Brande, Emma Faye, and MuoLi Hua dow to the front office for a doctors appointment?"

"Doctors appointment?" I asked Emma, but all she did was give me a mysterious smile as Mrs. Rue flusteredly handed us hall passes and directed us to go down the 5th stairway.

"What doctor's appointment?" Natalie questioned as we walked down the stairs. Everyone but Emma shrugged, who seemed to bask in a pool of relief. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. Whirling around, I demanded, 'What in the world is going on Emma?" She shook her head slowly, "I'm not supposed to tell you. Your parents or," here she looked at me, "your gaurdians will tell you."

"Oh, so I'm guessing _you _know what's going on huh?" Brook accused, her hands shaking.

I half expected Emma to poof her into a rock or something, but all she did was say calmly, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

And with those word ringing in my mind, she turned and climbed into a white car, waving at us and mouthing, "I'll see you guys later!" as the driver directed the car onto the highway.

As Natalie, Sabrina, and Brook puzzled in whispers over the sudden dismissal, I was suddenly gripped with a burst of nausea. Oh great.

"What are you guys doing here?" Brook asked suspiciously.

"Some kind of doctor's appointment," Stephen replied smoothly, "You?"

"Same," Natalie said, glancing at me. I was doubled over, and it felt like somebody was ripping me from inside. I've had enough of it, but no, Stephen just _had _to show up.

"Er, Jasmine, are you okay?" Adrian asked, worry tensing him.

"Fine. Just. Get. Stephen-" I gasped but was interrupted by Sabrina, "Away from her," she finished for me.

"Okay, okay, jeez," Stephen muttered, taking to steps back, "why exactly?"

"Because you make me want to throw up."

His eyes widened, "Oh, sorry.''

Just then, I spotted our battered navy blue truck pull up in the front.

"Gotta go, bye!" I called over my shoulder as I slung my two ton backpack over my shoulder and hurried outside. Just before I entered the car, I faintly heard Stephen's voice asking, "Wait, why exactly do I make her nauseous?" before the door slammed and the truck sped away back home.

"Aunt Juniper, what is going on?" I asked her, still clutching my sides.

"Don't worry Jasmine, I'll explain everything when we get back home alright flower? Just sit tight and try not to puke all over these seats."

How did she know I did feel like throwing up? First I almost get beaten up, second Emma starts acting all weird, and now my aunt can read my mind. My life is so normal right?

**Chapter 8! :D I know it was super short, but I kinda have writer's block. Any suggestions? Oh, and I'm leaving for Malaysia on June 30th, I'm sorry to say, and there's no wifi there. So no updates till I get back, okay? Sorry.**


	10. Chapter 9: Getting Over Differences

**Chapter Nine: Getting Over Differences.**

The truck pulled up in front of the house, and Aunt Juniper climbed out with the gleaming house keys dangling in her hands. I was still sitting in there though, it's like my mind just went numb with unanswered questions. She noticed I wasn't following her, and Aunt Juniper walked back, opened the car door, and gently but firmly pulled me out escorting me inside. Once we were inside the dining room, she pulled up a chair, and gestured me to sit. I kinda robotically sat down, like my brain wasn't connected to my body.

She drew in a deep breath, and said softly, "Jasmine, remember what I told you about your birthmark?" Of course I remember, it was a year after the crash, and my face was glistening with tears. She had held me until my sobs slowly subsided, and told me that my birthmark made me special. After she had personally consulted the principal, things got better, but not before I was totally embarrassed the next day when my teacher made everyone apologize. All of that went through my head in a split second, but I just nodded. Aunt Juniper sighed at my stony attitude, and I was surprised that I actually was giving her the cold shoulder. I needed explanations, and I could tell she was trying to approach the subject indirectly. Then again, she's never willingly talked about my leaf shaped birthmark before, until now.

"Look at this Jasmine, read the first page." With that, she handed me a thick, but oddly light, book. The cover was made of light brown leather, soft to the touch, and in the very center there was a round, flat wooden plate thingy. Carved in the center was a depiction of a single, perfect leaf that was colored a bright green. A regular old book, right? Wrong. For binding the book were long, bark like tendrils that wrapped around and around the book, comparable to tree roots. Weirdest thing? As soon as I ran the tip of my finger across the wooden carving, there was a faint click, and slowly but surely, the roots unwrapped themselves leaving the book free to open. Yup, it was totally a regular book you find at the library. That was before I read what was inside. I felt my eyes widen in disbelief as the deep green cursive writing burned the words into my mind.

_"Children born with the birthmark of leaf are one of the gifted. Gifted with the more uncommon element of life, life elementals have the inner ability to connect, interact, and even control the forest itself. Life elementals are more formally known as therugists, and are gifted with special abilities. Able to manipulate the life force of any plant, therugists can let vines grow, flowers bloom, and even make trees come to life. One of the most special powers granted upon life elementals from the dryads is the power to heal and restore the wounds of themselves, and others, mortal or immortal. This healing can be achieved through magic, or more commonly through use of a variety of herbs. Therugists are effective in teams, but they are weaker in solo combat. In many cases, life elementals and the humans in the family line are gifted with the Sight, the ability to see faeries, good and bad, without glamour. All elementals have a familiar, an animal bonded to them from the moment they are born. Life elementals usually have forest animals, magical and non magical, as their familiars. Range rabbits, deer, flutterbuns, grass vipers, and forest bears are some of the possible familiars for a therugist (See complete list on page 133). In rare instances, an elemental may have a dragon as a familiar, but the chances are slim, for dragons are stubborn and demanding familiars, with a few exceptions. Only three accounted therugists have ever had a dragon as a familiar throughout elemental history."_

I looked away from the elegant text and made eye contact with Aunt Juniper. "So, you mean- I'm a- I'm a-" I stuttered, still attempted to process this load of information in my head. She gave a small nod and gently closed the book, causing the root-like bindings to grow back.

"So that's why I can see faeries!" I exclaimed, startling poor Lola who was jolted rather rudely out of her afternoon nap time. "And all the plants alway seeming greener when I walk by, and the happy animals, and-and-"

"Woah, woah, woah, Jasmine, slow down," Aunt Juniper laughed lightly, "You'll get a chance to gush it over with your friends today, alright?" That's when I remembered the early dismissal. "We'll be going to a ceremony, The Ceremony I should say, to get everything sorted out for you guys. And we best be leaving now, or else the portal will close." She added, and swiftly got up and out the front door.

"But I'll miss archery!" I yelled, running after her. Funny how I cared about that right now when I just got hand basically a whole new life, but we're getting our test scores _today, _and that's super important, at least to me. I couldn't wait to rub it in Jaffie's face that I beat her on exams, but now I'm going to have to miss it.

Aunt Juniper rolled her eyes at me, "Come on Jasmine, you really don't want to miss this. Here they come!" Rumbling along the cement road was a huge white van, and it screeched to a halt right near us blowing dust everywhere. The doors flew open, and I saw a whole mob of kids squashed into the seats. Oh boy. Aunt Juniper ushered me up, and there was one seat bench left at the very back that actually have enough space to sit down without half of yourself suspended in mid air. The bus driver directed me to the left seats, and I noticed Brook waving excitedly at me. It wasn't long before I found out exactly why she was so excited and there was an empty space next to her instead of at the edge.

"Hey Jasmine, sit here!" She shouted, and before I could react, her hand reached out, tugged hard, and then I was flung unceremoniously into the space. Instantly I felt dizzy with nausea.

"Really Brook?" I yelled as I was shoved up against Stephen, who was in turn pushed up against the dirt caked window, his flat black eyes wide as the van swerved a curve and took off high speed onto the highway. Did I mention there weren't any seat belts? Struggling into a sitting position, I proceeded to put as much distance between myself and Stephen as possible. Hard task with Brook constantly attempting to shove me back. I mean seriously, can't I get _away from him_ for a few hours of my life?

"Sorry about my death aura," he apologized, scooting himself away all the while glaring at Brook's triumphiant expression, "I'll take that you're life right?" Well that explains a lot, come to think of it, it should have been pretty obvious since I finished reading that paragraph.

"Mmhm," I mumbled, trying to drown out Brook's voice saying all kinds of nonsense about whatever is going through her rebellious mind.

"Here Jasmine," Natalie called, and tossed me something. I reflexively caught it and realized it was some sort of cough drop thingy.

"How in the world is this going to help?" I shouted back at her.

"Just take it!" she yelled before her words were ripped apart by the chaos in the van. Unwrapping the candy, I popped the light brown sphere in my mouth. A fresh, mint like flavor spread throughout my tastebuds, and the unease in my tummy slowly subsided. Stephen visbly relaxed too, and managed to sit up in the tiny space. Whew, I felt a lot better. Mouthing thanks to Natalie, I turned my attention back to Brook, and heard a few snatches of her speech to Sabrina, "...they're like so cute together...of course he likes her...OMG yes! ...yeah...let's do it!" I didn't need to hear the whole conversation to know that she was talking about me.

"So Stephen, when are you gonna ask her out?'' Brook asked slyly. He opened his mouth to shoot back a reply, but I intervented with a, "Oh my gods Brook, leave him alone! And for your information, we're not even friends, so there!" Suddenly I felt my hands, which where clutched into fists, grow warm. Looking down, I gasped as a green glow was visible, and opening my palm revealed a small emerald green spark, which steadily grew in size as Brook continued to poke fun at me, completely oblivious to my mounting anger.

"Um, Brook, you might want to be quiet," Stephen warned, noticing the large glowing orb of energy in my hand.

"Oh look, how cute, he's trying to defend you!" In that instant, both me and Stephen's self control snapped, and I unleashed the spark into Brook's surprised face. A pitch black blaze soon exploded dangerously close to her face right after mine, and I sensed more than saw his stare drilling into Brook's face.

"Shut. Your. Mouth. Up," I growled at her, my hands sparking again with bright energy.

Her disbelief switched quickly to fury even though not even a scratch was on her skin, and she deftly turned around and chatted nonstop with Sabrina about something or the other. Guilt gnawed at me for losing control, but I was throughly sick of it.

"I can't believe I lost control like that," I muttered partly to myself, mentally cursing my out of control temper

"Me too," I heard Stephen say softly, "I'm usually not that violent." I knew that, he's so quiet that I sometimes forget that he's there. Must be a death thing. I could feel the effects of the mint wearing off, but somehow I wasn't feeling faint. Odd.

"Did you know that we have an extended lifespan now?" he asked me out of the blue, attempting to change the subject and provide a distraction. It worked.

"An extended life span?" I echoed in surprise. He smiled slightly at my curious tone, and started rattling off all sorts of fascinating facts about us elementals like he already read the whole entire guide book, which given his clique in the school, he probably did. For once I'm not being sarcastic on the fascinating part, it was actually interesting. Throughout the whole three hour car ride, I learned that elementals can live up to ten thousand years with a plus side of super mega slow aging, our powers start manifesting around the age of 10 to 13 (FYI, I'm 11), we emmit auras (explains the nausea), if we use up too much of our energy we could technically blow up (Oh goshies), got lectured on a complete list of the elements, there are secondary elements (sun, moon, star, and balance.), opposing elemental usually don't get along well with the exception of opposite companions (That explains my automatic hostility towards him earlier in the day. No idea what opposite companions are.), and that we most likely will die in combat before the age of eight thousand (Gulp.). By the time he finished talking, I was almost one hundred percent sure he read the whole book. Suddenly a thought struck me.

"Wait, so is that why you knew my parents are... dead?" My voice cracked a bit on the last part.

He shrugged, "I guess. It's more like I felt it, as soon as Sarah said that I sensed that they weren't there with you. And I'm sorry they're gone," he added as an afterthought.

"It's okay," I said thickly, "It's not like I could bring them back." I lapsed into silence the rest of the time, gazing sightlessly out the window. Stephen looked thoughtful, as if he was thinking of a plan.

**Hey, I managed to find some wifi! :D Hoped you liked this chapter, but this will probably be the last one I'll complete until I get back into the US. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, thanks!**

***Note: This story is actually based off of my actual friends and my life only changed slightly. The teasing bits usually did actually happen except all in school.**


	11. Chapter 10: Numb with Amazement

**Chapter Ten: Numb with Wonder**

"Okay kids, everyone out!" The van's doors swung open with a faint creak, and was soon clogged up with pushing kids. Just in time, I was seriously going to lose it if I have to hear one more conversation between Brook and Sabrina about their 'awesome new water talents', plus I would've probably wrecked the whole car too. On the bright side, Stephen's aura didn't make me wanna puke anymore, which means that I can actually focus on what Mrs. Raq is teaching us instead of attempting keeping down my breakfast tomorrow. I'm gonna have to ask Natalie for more of those mint thingies, they seem to help with the annoying aura thing.

"Um, Jasmine, you alright? You look a bit, er, green," Natalie asked, concern lacing her voice as she caught up with me after getting out of the stuffy van.

I gulped, just realizing that I was carsick after the insanely long three hour ride. Oh goody.

"I'm fine Natalie. Besides, aren't life elementals SUPPOSED to be green?" I cracked a feeble smile while she rolled her eyes at my lighthearted tone.

"I'm serious Jasmine," she insisted, pulling me upright, "We're supposed to look presentable, that's hard enough to do in our everyday school clothes. Now, do I need to go get your aunt or what?" I quickly shook my head, wincing inwardly when that kinda made the nausea worse. The last thing I needed right now was more humiliating public attention as my aunt fussed over her, "pretty flower darling." I'm not kidding, she still calls me that. Supporting me against her shoulder, Natalie led me towards a tall, glassy professional looking building.

My head cleared a bit when the smell of freshly bloomed gardenias drifted in the air of a huge lobby we entered. There were people milling about idly in the room, both humans and elementals (the birthmarks kinda give it away). Light brown leather couches were arranged in a square formation around a fake fireplace, and a bookshelf bursting with all sorts of health magazines was placed next to the window. A large crystal chandelier threw cozy yellow light around the place, and I spied a gurgling pumice waterfall occupying a corner with tall smooth bamboo plants behind it. And of course, pot after pot of beautiful white gardenias were scattered miscellaneously around the tables. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed the plants noticeably grew while I was near them. Hmm, I'm pretty sure life elemental thing.  
"Where are we?" I asked Natalie, able to stand again without the world spinning.

"Gardenia Inn," she answered as we followed the group to an elevator. Huh, sounds normal enough. What were we going to do, spend the night here? I snorted at the ridiculousness of that idea.

Ding! Between the two available elevators, we managed to squeeze everybody in. As always, I got squished up against Stephen's shoulder, and altogether he looked pretty awkward. This was becoming routine now, so I wasn't very surprised when I was shoved in right next to, and almost onto, him. Natalie got pushed onto me, and her wild blonde hair honestly was making me very uncomfortable as it kept on brushing across my face. Plus there was an odd smell, kinda like a campfire -ish kind of smell. I glanced at Natalie, and noticed for the first time that her honey golden-brown eyes were actually glowing, and if I squinted I could almost see a reddish flame in the center of her pupil.

"Fire elemental?" I guessed, my eyes drawn to a small, dark orange birth mark vaguely shaped like a flame, and staring at her hair, which was now not just floating, but sparking a bit too. Oh goshies, if she bursts into flames, I would be toast. Literally. Stephen would be okay(probably, I mean, I'm between him and the magical flame hair, so...), but plants plus fire, well, lets just say not a good combination. She nodded, and all of a sudden seemed to realize what was happening to her hair. Frantically she grabbed her hair and tried to put out the little candle flames, but her desperateness made the flames grow bigger. Even Stephen looked worried now, and hugged the wall(not literally, but it looked like it) to put as much distance between him and the flames. I think the slight burning smell would have set off the fire alarms and scorched me alive if not for Sabrina. Suddenly, a steady jet of cold water shot out of Sabrina's hand and squirted onto Natalie's truly flaming hair, quickly dousing the miniature flames. Unfortunately, after quenching the fires the stream of water went right through Natalie's tangled hair and you guessed it, straight onto my shirt and all over my skort, not to mention on my arms.

"Great, just great," I muttered as the water seeped through my clothes and onto my skin. To make things worse, it was freezing water. Add that to the effective air conditioning in the elevator, and soon I was shivering like crazy, which didn't exactly improve Stephen's situation, for now instead of just a girl being shoved up right next to him, it's a cold, wet, quaking girl pushed against his side.

"Oh my gosh, Jasmine, I'm so sorry!" Sabrina said, horrified at the state of my clothes.

I was about to say its okay, but then somebody said gruffly, "Kids, no magic yet in here, got it?"

"Aw man, I was gonna get the water out," Sabrina complained, in the middle of making some sort of pulling hand gesture, but one glare from the person stopped her short immediately.

"Sorry," Natalie whispered to me, and struggled to get her apparently magical hair under control. Okay, so Sabrina and Brook can shoot water outta their hands, Natalie has magical hair, but what about me? All I did was make a little spark explode, and I wasn't exactly sure HOW I did it. Plus make the gardenias go crazy, but I don't have any cool stuff like flaming hair or shooting water out of my hands. Sigh.

Ding! The wide metal doors slid smoothly open, and I got pulled out in the flood of people pouring outside.

"Woah," I muttered as I noticed my surroundings. The room had a low ceiling, and the walls seemed to be just, well, dirt. A touch of my hand confirmed that. Multicolored, different scented candles were lit up around the room on the floor giving off gentle flickering light and lovely aroma. A candle next to me was giving off a fresh fruity scent, kinda like grapes, oranges, peaches, and cherries, and I found myself inhaling deeply. But what really astonished me was the door. Door is an understatement, it was more like a huge gate to a palace.

The wide double doors were completely incased with silver, and bronze handles gleamed at the sides. On the left side were gigantic round solid gold plates, like the ones on the life book, but much much larger and a whole lot fancier. The leaf symbol was pure jade, the veins outlined with tiny emeralds. A single large peridot was hammered on the next plate, surrounded by chips of polished quartz and tiger eye. Amethysts made up the next picture, I'm guessing it was three gusts of wind judging by the sweeping lines of purple amethyst. The last gold plate had an aquamarine stone carefully carved into a single water droplet, and clear blue sapphires outlined the droplet.

The right side was the same, except the symbols were different. Starting from the bottom, I saw a golden plate with layers of gems. The bottom layer was glittering ruby, the second layer was some kind of bright orange stone, and the layer at the very top was brilliant yellow topaz. Altogether they showed a flame that actually seemed to flicker if you stared at it for long enough. The upper plate showed millions of tiny sparkling diamonds arranged into a perfect snowflake, and more were placed around the edge of the plate. Next was chunk after chunk of dark purple amethyst forming a cloud, and glowing neon yellow crystals made up the single lightning bolt coming out of the storm cloud. At the very top next to the leaf plate was-oh goshies. My brain kept my eyes glued to the symbol, as if it wanted me to see and observe it. Pure black onyx stones made a large skull with empty eyes, and outlining the shape were round spheres of obsidian. Death. Everyone else was gaping too, and I had a sudden urge to step closer to the silver doors, to make sure they were real.

"This. Is. Amazing," Sabrina breathed, her deep, navy blue eyes drawn to the water drop. I nodded mutely, still gawking at the magnificence of the doors.

"Hey, I think we're going in!" Natalie exclaimed with excitement as a tall woman with flowing blonde hair stepped up to the doors with a long, intricately carved bronze key in her hand. Inserting the key into a large gaping keyhole, the doors swung slowly and dramatically open. My body felt as if it was going to collapse from pure wonder, while my eyes drank in the amazing sight greedily.

Like the doors, the word room was a complete understatement, this place made Greystone Middle School look like a wardrobe. Stepping into the room, I noticed that it was the same shape as the entrance room before, roundish, and also composed of tightly packed soil. At the very back of the 'room' (I really can't think of anything else to call it, okay? Sue me.), a raised marble platform proudly supported a long, cherry wood table with seven grandly carved chairs of the same set. Closer inspection revealed that the chairs had soft, maroon velvet seats, the backs of the chairs had a large jewel of different kinds in the middle, and the center chair was a whole lot fancier and it was raised a bit higher than the other chairs. What knocked the air out of my lungs were the tall pillars. All of them were awesome, but the last one held me in a trance. The jade pillar was barely visible through the massive ivy vines creeping around and around the pillar like cobwebs on a wall. Unnaturally big morning glory plants grew over the tangled ivy, and produced insanely big multicolored flowers which strangely gave off a sweet, almost fruity smell that perfumed the air around the pillar. The very top boasted a huge, octagonal gold plaque exactly like the one on the door, with the bejeweled leaf. Natalie's sight was reduced to a flaming orange pillar with a glowing flame symbol, Sabrina had eyes only for one with flickering, liquid blue light like the bottom of a pool, and even Stephen's face was alight with astonishment as he gazed at an onyx pillar wrought with bright silver veins and a silver skull hanging over the top. Personally I don't get what was so great about the death pillar, although I do admit the skull was very finely detailed.

I subconsciously found myself taking steps towards the life pillar, and once I reached it, my hand hesitantly touched a single leaf to make sure it was all real. I didn't know how this moment could heap more wonders on my eyes, but it did. For when my finger came in contact with the numerous plants around the pillar, there was a small sigh, and suddenly the greenery flourished. Leaves were growing fuller, flower after flower had color flushed into the petals, and the vines wound themselves tighter.  
"This is awesome," I muttered, and proceeded to enslave the morning glories to grow themselves into all sorts of animals. Lets see, a bear, a bunny, another bunny, a cat, yet another bunny, and I was struggling to make a horse when I noticed the silence in the air. Now, let me tell you, when I say silence, I mean, complete utter silence.

Turning around, I realized everybody was staring at me, including my recently made friends. Ugh, how many times in a day do I have get an overdose of public attention? As quickly as it started, the awkward silence was broken by whispers on the account of the adults, and the sound of running feet from Sabrina, Natalie, and Brook. Even though I was grateful the silence was gone, what replaced it wasn't really much of a bargain.

"You think she's the one?"  
"She might be, let's wait for the Council Members,"  
"Remember the prophecy?"  
"She doesn't look like much, surely not enough to defeat him..."  
"And what about the part of the prophecy about a girl and a boy bound as companions?"  
"Well, she _is_ a life elemental..."  
"There hasn't been a therugist in _years_, not after Sylvia-"

At the mention of my mom's name, I shut off all my hearing, but it was too late. I vaguely sensed Sabrina saying something to me, but by then I was already sinking down, and I knew my body that was left behind would have a blank, vacant expression. A cool, slowly spready darkness spread all over me and pulled me gently away from the waking world. I felt my spirit falling deep down and suddenly floating, and I wanted to go back to the real world, away from the dreams, but I couldn't. All I could do was part my lips in a silent scream as the blackness closed around me.


	12. Ch 11: Council and Flashbacks

**Chapter Eleven: The Council, Dreams, and Possibilty of Meeting My Friends Before**

_A little girl, no more than the age of six was leaping and doing cartwheels across the soft, springy grass, her dark chocolate brown hair billowing behind her, and forest green eyes sparkling with laughter._

_"I'm gonna get you!" Another voice called out, and behind a stout dull rock emerged another girl dressed in a light blue shirt and short jeans. Her aquamarine eyes lit up with mischief, and she raced towards the other girl, wrestling her to the ground while setting off peals of tinkling laughter as the girls tussled around on the ground. The green eyed girl broke away, and sprinted with amazing speed for a six year old, calling teasingly behind her shoulder, "You know you can't catch me!"_

_"Okay, okay, fine. I give up!" Slumping against the rough boulder in mock defeat, the blue eyed girl twirled a strand of her fine, auburn hair lazily._

_"Why is your hair always longer than mine?" she complained, pouting disappointedly._

_"Because Mommy doesn't make me cut my hair," the other girl answered smugly, displaying the full two feet length of rich brown hair proudly._

_"Come on now you two little angels, time for snacks," A woman called out, and emerged from a thatched hut with a wooden tray of steaming, freshly baked sugar cookies in one hand. She had beautiful, hazel eyes, and her long, silky black hair was pulled back into a single braid. An airy, pale green cotton dress graced her features, and she was barefoot, like the other laughing little girls. _

_"Come on Jasmine."_

Just then, the dream ended, and I felt my soul rising back up to the world above. With a jolt, I woke up to Natalie shaking me furiously, and yelling, "Earth to Jasmine, Earth to Jasmine!" Sabrina had a hand waving over my face, and Brook was poking my shoulder with three fingers.

"Guys, guys, I'm fine, I'm fine, yeesh." I stood up and nonchalantly brushed off their attempts to wake me up. But when I looked at Brook, a flash of recognition crossed my mind, and I almost fell back down again. Those blue eyes...

"You're the girl in there," I murmured half to myself, "Those weren't dreams, they were memories."

Sabrina shook me hard, "What in world at you talking about Jasmine? What's this about girls and memories?" Panic surged through my body, I couldn't let them know about it.

"Um, nothing," I said with forced cheerfulness, "Just talking to myself!"

"Riiiiiight..." Brook said, raising an eyebrow. "Jasmine, can I talk to you real quick?" Natalie and Sabrina exchanged skeptical glances, but nodded and moved away. As soon as they were out of ear shot, Brook looked back at me, and I was surprised to see pleading in her clear sapphire eyes. I was expecting her to blast me with freezing water to get back at me for making a spark explode in her face. Then again, she'll have to shoot Stephen too, and I was really sure he would probably get back at her.

"Oh my gosh Jasmine, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gone too far, will you please forgive me?" She apologized, the pleading look growing to fill her whole face.

"Of course I'll forgive you Brook, and I'm sorry about blasting that spark thingy in your face."

She looked extremely relieved, and suddenly the begging look vanished to be replaced by curiosity. It's amazing how much I can read from people's eyes.

"Speaking of that, how in the universe did you make that, um, green spark?"

I shrugged, "I honestly didn't know either," I admitted.

"Go ask Stephen then!" Brook squealed, pushing me towards the death pillar, "He knows everything." I rolled my eyes and protested loudly, but she was too strong. And anyway, if my life aura hadn't alerted him by now, our shoving and yelling probably already captured the undivided attention of everyone in the room.

"Brooklyn Elizabeth Raine, what are you doing?" Somebody demanded sharply.

"Um, hi mom..." Brook replied nervously, letting me go. "Just, er, taking Jasmine around?" Seriously, that has got to be the lamest excuse ever. I was about to teasingly spill the beans on exactly why she was abducting me when a loud BONG interrupted. Three more ear shattering bongs followed the first one leaving all of us cringing and covering our ears.

"Elementals, return to your pillars for the Ceremony of the New Moon," a deep, gravelly voice called out from the raised platform.

Beating a hasty retreat, I sprinted back to the life pillar before chaos erupted as people rushed back to their elemental group. It was after all the hustle and bustle before I realized that I was alone. Like, all the other pillars were crowded with people chatting, but the life pillar was like a quiet island on an ocean of noise. Even Stephen had his family with him, although he was the only kid there.

"Where in the world is Aunt Juniper?" I muttered to myself, absentmindedly switching the colors of a rose from red to green to rainbow tie dye.

"I'm sorry Jasmine, but she's not allowed here, after all, she isn't an elemental like you," a familiar voice said behind me.

"Emma?" I gasped in disbelief as I saw her.

Her silken golden orange hair seemed to glow with its own light, brightening the crown of snowdrops on her head. Grey blue eyes shone with happiness, and her pointed ears were revealed, no longer obscured by her hair. A light green gossamer elven gown with gold trimming swirled around her gracefully, and shining leather ankle boots peeked out from underneath the hem. A darker green velvet robe dotted with countless sapphires completed her outfit. And of course, the golden hair pin was there.

She smiled and twirled around slowly, "You like it?"

"Of course I do! Emma, you look wonderful!" Suddenly my school clothes looked very raggedy next to her dress. I wish I could have asked Aunt Juniper to braid my hair again to make it neater, but according to Emma, she can't come.

"Thanks! Oh, the council is about to start! Gotta go, mom's up there." Emma gestured to me to be quiet, and made her way up next to another woman wearing a light blue robe with small, silver rhinestones. But before she left I noticed a flash of trepidation in her normally cheerful blue eyes. Why was everyone acting so odd around me? The lonely feeling washed over me again as I watched the numerous number of water elementals next to the life pillar.

Looking up at the table, I realized all the chairs were now occupied. The council members all had name tags on, and robes in all shades of colors. Allia was a tall, brown eyed woman with her black hair pulled back into a bun. Judging from her lavender robe, I'm pretty sure she was an air elemental. Reynia had super short, pixie cut pitch black hair, and her skin was bone pale. Coal black eyes peered out almost menacingly from under her swept bangs, and as I watched, the shadows behind her seemed to be moving towards her ebony robe. Definitely death, but she did look familiar, at least her eyes... Oh! That must be Stephen's mother. Goshies, her demanding look is seriously creeping me out. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and moved on. Sitting next to Reynia was Flanc, a dark skinned African American man with blazing golden eyes, and a fiery orange robe. On the tallest and grandest chair sat Camerou, a kindly oldish man with brown eyes and a fancy biege robe with countless silver runes. To his left was Garlister, a well muscled man with tied back, slick black hair. An ugly scar ran down the side of his face and over his stormy purple eyes, and when he spotted me alone as the "group" for life, his mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. Altogether, I didn't like this storm elemental very much. But Indrian, a cheerful looking ice elemental with mischevious, pale blue eyes, more than made up for his unfriendliness, for his face immediately brightened when he saw me in front of the life pillar. He even went so far as to give me a thumbs up, very self-esteem boosting. I could we were going to get along, even though he's ice. Last of all was Thymarra, Emma's adoptive parent. Her warm, chocolate brown eyes, fair pale skin, and long flowing golden brown hair reminded so strongly of my mom that I almost wanted to cry. I could tell she was the youngest of the council members, and was the representative for water. I spotted a flash of orange hair, and Emma slowly emerged from behind Thymarra, beaming at Brook, Natalie, and Sabrina's amazed expression at her pointed ears.

"Our new trainees, please step into the center of the room in your element groups," Camerou called in his deep voice.

**Okay everyone who is even reading my story, the only reason I'm still writing on here is because I'm emailing this story to my friends. I wish you all would review, because I'm getting very discouraged and thinking about discontinuing this. Even just a simple "Good story" would brighten my spirits for writing. And constructive critisism is welcome, no flames. And my number of views is pretty much staying the same, so yes, I am extremely dscouraged right now. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! Then again, if no one is reading this, and I discontinue this, no one would care. So I might just discontinue this after all. **


	13. Chapter 12: Joy, More Public Attention

****Author's Note: I am still on vacation, and have limited wifi. I would like to thank my loyal reviewer, survivoroflife. She has been very supportive throughout my writing, and encouraged me not to end this story. And I would like to point it out that these characters are based on my actual friends.

**Chapter Twelve: Oh Joy, More Public Attention**

I'm guessing the new trainees referred to me, so I shuffled into the center of the room along with many other kids about the same age as me, though a whole lot taller.

Brook, Sabrina, three sandy haired boys, and one other blonde girl formed the group for water elementals, purifysts. Natalie, two Asian guys, and three giggly auburn haired girls stood for fire, flayists, while Rex, Flinn, and about four other guys pushed each other around in the storm group, scracers. An Indian girl with shoulder length black hair chatted happily with a Pakistan girl, plus five more boys including Gerrold and you've got the earth group, solifysts. The air elementals, soarers, had about twelve unusually tall European kids, and a fair skinned Chinese girl with black hair tied back into a ponytail. Hate welled up inside me when I noticed Kate and Claire in the ice group, tossing their platinum blonde hair haughtily all over the place. Adrian looked uncomfortable in the presence of those two Drama Queens, and in the end resorted to distract himself with his iPhone while we waited. I suddenly felt self conscious as the only therugist here, at least Stephen had his parents so he wasn't alone for death. It was like there was a bright hot spotlight trained on my every movement because as soon as I stepped into the center, all seven pairs of eyes of the Council averted to look at me standing there in my ridiculously noticeable green clothes. I mean seriously, why doesn't anyone wear green down here?

My ears picked up the murmurs of this mysterious prophecy again, and now even my friends seemed to know exactly what was going on. Oh my goshies, all this unwanted attention makes me almost wish I could dream again, to at least get away from this world. Why can't anyone direct their eyes and mutters on Stephen? Oh right, cause I'm the ONLY life elemental, while he's is just the only kid there. Ugh, I felt like throwing a temper tantrum right about now, and let me tell you, my hissy fits are not pretty.

"Welcome elementals, my name is Allia Everdeen, Slayer of Giants, representing air elementals on the Council," Allia said, standing up briefly before sitting back down.

"My name is Reynia Wei, Bane of Gorgons, Conquerer of the Goblins, representing death elementals, and also my son is Stephen over there," Reynia declared, gesturing proudly to now a very embarrassed Stephen. His face had the classic teen protest of, "MOM!" written all over it. I had to struggle to keep from laughing at his expression.

"As representative for fire elementals, my name is Flanc Fown, Elfant Bane, Troll Slayer, and my daughter Daimia," he introduced himself while nodding towards the direction of a fire elemental with frizzy, braided hair who was just basking in the attention of her friends.

Camerou stood up and cleared his throat, "Welcome, my name is Camerou Quar, head of the Council, Slayer of the Five Monsters, Vemonir's Bane."

As Garlister turn to speak, I saw his unsettling, stormy purple eyes rove over the various elemental groups almost hungrily, and soon came to rest slightly menacingly on me. Right then and there I wish I could melt into the ground or something, anything to escape his searching gaze. The light voice of Indrian released me from my sudden fear, and my shoulders, sore from tensing, visibly relaxed. While he was finishing up, Brook looked at me questionably, but I merely shook my head.

"I am delighted for all of you, my name is Thymarra Faye," her calm, gentle words snapping me back to attention, "Bane of the Fire Lord, Elven-friend," at this Emma smiled," and also second mother to Emma, as some as you know her." With that she sat back down, Emma standing patiently behind her chair and idly combing through her sunset colored hair with long pale fingers.

"As I call you by name, please step up to receive your mark of the gifted, and bear it proud, for this is the mark of those like us, and will aid you on your quests in forms of elemental shelter and hospitality."

Man, all this formality was making my head spin, and I ached to just shout to break the politeness. Oh goshies, I think my head is spinning. A slow throb began in my mind, and was ever so slowly becoming more and more painful.

"How'd it go Brook?" I heard Sabrina ask, but I never got to know what Brook said because at that time the throbbing grew into a full blown migraine. Everything in front of me blurred into blobs and splashes of disorienting color, and my body crumpled slowly into the ground against my will. Black spots danced across my vision, and I could feel myself rapidly losing consciousness. In the back of my mind, I heard Natalie yell, "Jasmine fainted!" before darkness claimed me and my spirit broke away from my body. I was falling, falling down into the cool blackness, falling away from the real world, falling into the dreams. Falling...

Okay, Chapter Twelve! Once again, please review!


	14. Ch 13 My Life Gets Complicated

**Chapter Thirteen: My Life Gets Even More Complicated**

_Smoke was in the air, and the stench of death and blood tainted the atmosphere. Screams echoed all around the burning village while the residents fought against the tide of shadow warriors. Ghost riders on black horses galloped around the huts, swinging their long wicked swords to maim and kill. Suddenly, a bolt of ear splitting lightning shot down from the sky, incinerating dozens of people, and was followed by bolt after bolt of white hot lightning. A little girl ran from a burning hut, clutching a leather satchel and a small bundle of trembling fur. Near her, a ghost rider screeched with triumph, and reached out with his sword to sever her head. But it never got the chance. A tall, female warrior with long, braided black hair leapt out from behind a smoldering tree and lashed out at the ghost with a sharp dagger. Wailing, the ghost rider dissipated into nothing, and the horse ran around wild, trampling everyone in its path. All of a sudden, a dark man wreathed in black shadows stepped out of the smoky haze, and glared with contempt at the green eyed girl shivering with fear._  
_"Jasmine, get away from him!" The woman screamed, desperately trying to ward off the warriors from the girl, but she was paralyzed with fear, tears making tracks down her soot stained face._  
_"Oh, so this is the little girl that everyone is trying so very hard to protect?" The man rasped, "No one will stand in my way this time, finish her off." With that, he pointed to two children, their features hidden by the stifling smoke. _  
_"I don't want to kill her!" a female voice whispered, and out of the gloom, two pairs of terrified eyes were shown. One a glowing gold, the other coal black. "She's done nothing to us! And you've harmed my family!"_  
_The dark man hissed in disgust, "You are a weakling, Natalie Brande, but now he will finish the job." As he finished saying that, a long claw like hand reached behind him and dragged out a black haired boy about the same age as the girl. His black shirt was torn, and his navy blue jeans had huge rips. Struggling to get free, both of them made eye contact. Green eyes met black eyes, and a single message was clear: Run. _  
_"Jasmine!" The girl snapped her attention back to the woman, who had blood seeping through her light leather armor, and three arrows pierced into her shoulder._  
_"MOM!" She cried, lurching blindly, but suddenly tendrils of shadows wrapped around her legs and stopped her in her tracks. _  
_"Stop using me!" A harsh, metallic laugh rang out as the boy tried to twist away from the cruel grip. His arm was stretched out towards the girl by the bone pale hands, and length after length of hazy blackness poured out from his trembling hands. With a loud hiss, the man melted into the shadows, but the boy was still in the same position, and was struggling harder than ever to get free._  
_"You see little girl, even your friends dare to hurt you, and there's no escape now is there?" His echoing voice coming from the smoky shadows next to her._  
_"He's not hurting me, you are!" She screamed, but the man chuckled evilly. In a split second, his arm darted out, and long, obsidian knife appeared in his steel gloved hand. _  
_"Oh, but of course, little Jasmine. Do you know why I would relish killing a pretty little flower like you?" he mock asked, the dagger glinting cruelly in the light of the fires. She knew better than to answer, and just responded by trying to pull away from the shadows. Fresh tears threatened to spill over as she was forced to watch her mother get stabbed by a ghost rider. A shriek of agony escaped her mother's lips as she shakily aimed another arrow at the horse's head. _  
_"You, my dear little Jasmine, is in my way of victory," he hissed menacingly before prepared to impale the knife into her rigid back. But then the tide turned as the boy wrenched himself free, and released the girl from the black bindings. Gasping, she drew out an arrow from the wall behind her, and with deadly accuracy, shot the point straight through the man's eye, buying her just enough time to run away from the fury of the man._  
_She turned towards her dying mother, who gave a tight lipped smile. _  
_"Don't worry about me Jasmine, my flower." And with those parting words, a great golden beam of light wrapped itself around the girl as the man, enraged, attempted to deliver a death blow towards her. The glowing yellow bubble slowly sank down into the earth, carrying the girl with it as a sickening scream of pain lashed through the air._

Slowly, I felt my soul floating up again, and my eyes flew open. The first thing I saw was Emma's face looking at me intently, and she grinned before announcing, "Jasmine's up!" Groggily I sat upright, my head still whirling with the information from my memories.

"Thank goodness," Thymarra interrupted my thoughts, kneeling down next to me, "What happened Jasmine?" Panic seized me instantly, I didn't want anyone to know. Mutely shaking my head, I tried to stand up only to collapse again into Thymarra's arms. This is embarrassing.

"Oh for Gilabrian's sake, stop trying to act like you're fine Jasmine," Emma said, exasperated. "Do you honestly think me or Thymarra for that matter would believe you are 'fine' after falling down swooning right in the middle of Sabrina's marking, not to mention rudely if I say so myself. Then after slapping your face about three dozen times and you still didn't wake up, I had resorted to Adrian spilling ice all over your eyes. Did you wake up? No! Oh, and it gets even better," she was obviously fuming now, "after that Natalie was given permission to set fire to your hair, and Stephen even passed into the Shadowlands to check if you were hiding over there or not, and then Gerrold-"

"Woah, woah, Emma darling, calm down," Thymarra laughed, hoisting me up on my feet. "What is past is past, now why don't you lead her to the feast?"

Emma sighed and led me down a stairway, then left, then right, then right, then another right, then up a stair way, and- okay, lets just say by the time I got into the dining hall I was literally dizzy from all the twists and turns.

"Sorry Jasmine, it's just that-"

"I know," I interrupted her. "But I have one question. You're saying _Stephen_ went into the Shadowlands for me?" I had no idea why in the world was I reacting this way, but thinking about that made me kind of... Happy, you could say, for a moment. Once again, absolutely no idea where that came from.

She shrugged, "Yeah, what's so surprising about it?" I just gaped at her, and upon seeing my expression, she giggled nervously, "Oh right, we don't know for sure yet..."

"What?" I asked suspiciously, planting my feet firmly on the ground.

Emma gave her head a little shake, jostling the flower crown, "Nothing, you'll find out soon enough after the feast. And here we are!" Pushing the enormous, polished wooden doors open, I almost felt like fainting again. I've gotta say, they don't skimp over room decoration.

A huge, multicolored glass chandelier hung from the ceiling, and a long table was stretched out in the middle of the room. Seated at the head was Camerou, engaged in a deep conversation with Indrian. The Council Members sat at the upper end of the table, and the rest of the chairs were filled with the senior members of all elementals. Shining brass candle holders were placed at the end, front, and middle of the table, and everyone had a gold plate heaped with delicious food. Round tables, school cafeteria style, filled the area left and right of the long table. Silken banners displayed the symbols of all the elements, including life, while skillfully woven tapestries depicted scenes relating to the four seasons.  
"Jasmine! Oh, thank goodness!" Brook exclaimed, madly waving her arm around to gain my attention. She looked like she was one of those desperate commuters hailing a taxi. I mentally cursed her loudness as all heads turned in my direction at her exclamation. Looks like I'm forever doomed to be treated like some movie star around here, and after eight long years of living as a nobody, let me tell you, all this attention is honestly unnerving. Sighs and murmurs of relief met me as Emma and I walked over to where Brook, Natalie, Sabrina, and two other girls sat, a soarer and solifyst.

"Jasmine, meet Ashling and Tiffany," Emma introduced, "Ashling's an earth elemental, I met her at an art camp along with Sabrina, and Tiffany is an air elemental. We both met at Sunnydown Riding Academy."

Tiffany was Chinese with a paler complexion, and her glossy black hair was held up in a ponytail with a purple elastic. She had on a denim riding jacket, a lavender shirt, and long light blue jeans. Ashling was of Indian ancestry, with dark brown eyes, shoulder length black hair with a black plastic hair band, and a happy-go-lucky kind of personality. She was wearing a grey T-shirt with a smiley face printed on it, and faded jeans stained beige at the knees.

"Nice to meet you," I said politely, plopping myself down next to Brook and Emma. I was instantly peppered mercilessly with an onslaught of questions. In general, they centered around what made me faint.

"Well..." I started, unwilling to explain, and especially share the dreams, not until I have understood them.

"Well what?" Natalie demanded. Her golden eyes seemed to flare up with a flame, and to tell you the truth, she looked plenty scary at the moment.

Brook patted her sparking hair to put out the flames, then stared at me, waiting for an answer. I shot a pleading glance towards Emma, but she was waiting too, for once she didn't know what is going on.

Turning a perfectly baked roll in my hands, I took a deep breath and asked, "You guys know how my parents supposedly died in a car crash?" They all nodded mutely, "Well, they didn't. I know this because... Because I get these dreams, and even in the day. I always thought it was that, just dreams. But at the life pillar today, I realized they were memories. Brook, you triggered the one I had earlier," I said, while she looked at my with confusion all over her face, "and the one I just had... It was too strong, and apparently I fainted because of it. I don't know who triggered it, but it was vivid, and it gave me the answer. The last piece of the puzzle, you could call it, to my parent's death."

Here I stopped, and was about to finish off my salad when Brook cut in, "Wait, how did I set off the flashback you had?"

Ugh, this is the part I dreaded, "Brook, it kinda showed me when I was little, and... You were there. Like, as a little girl." Her blue eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to say something, but never got the chance.

"Elementals, please proceed to the Familiar Room," Camerou announced, and as if on cue, all of the Council Members stood up and left at exactly the same time. Gee, wonder what else they have in store for us.

"Come on, lets go," Tiffany said as if nothing unusual happened, pushing her plate away and standing up. All of us got up and headed towards two smaller but no less grander doors that led into a wide, low corridor that had a rounded ceiling. Suddenly, in the back of my mind I sensed a presence, unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. Vague feelings of astonishment, embarrassment, excitement, and a touch pain crowded into my own emotions, jumbling them up. I winced when a sudden burst of annoyance envaded my thoughts, scattering my own feelings. Pressing my fingers to my temples, I slowed down to walk beside Emma, who had a big grin on her face.

"Emma, am I supposed to feel someone else's feelings in my mind?" I asked her, since she apparently knows exactly what's going on around here. That might sound really weird, but I was thinking that as the last life elemental for over ten years, this might be one of my powers. Not that I _want _to feel someone else's feelings, but it would be kinda cool.

"Already?" She gasped in surprise, then started talking mostly to herself again, "Oh Gilabrian, this complicates everything, have to tell Camerou to speed it up, need to get to the companion ritual... But that would mean a ridiculously strong bond between them, and a gold bond hasn't happened for years... Oh my gosh, two opposite companions are enough rarity, but the possibility of one pair having a gold bond?" She was clearly overly excited now, and there was a little cheerful bounce in her step, "Yup, definitely need to tell Camerou, knew it, knew it, knew it. Plus the fact that this could-"

"Emma," I interrupted her fast paced musing, "what in the world are opposite companions?" Even as I said that I had a feeling I knew what they were. If my suspicions were correct, my life is about to get worse. Great, just what I needed.

She looked uncomfortable, absentmindedly playing with her hair as she thought.  
"Er, um..." She started awkwardly, "Hey look, it's time to meet your familiars!"

So yeah, that's Chapter Thirteen! Once again, please please please review!


	15. Ch 14: I Get Bombarded by a Furball

**Chapter Fourteen: I Get Bombarded by a Furball**

"What?" I gasped, rushing into the room. My eyes only had about a millisecond to notice that the place was almost run over with fur and all kinds of odd additions like wings, horns, and were those dragon scales? I didn't get to find out before a brown, fluffy fur ball slammed into my chest, nearly toppling me over.

"Lola?" I gasped, looking at her cute white fuzzy nose going up and down rapidly with happiness.

"Yuppies momma! Mesa youz FAMILIAR!" She giggled with an adorable accent, continuing her love attack in the form of nuzzling my hand and wrapping her stubby little furry paws around my arm in a bone crushing hug. That's when I noticed the green, monarch butterfly wings fluttering with excitement on her back. Oh my goshies.

"Lola, you're a- you have-" I stuttered before Lola cut in with a whoop, "Mmhm, me a fwutterbun!" She declared with a flourish of her paws, then leaped into the air, snapping open her wings.

I found myself laughing at her hilarious antics. First Lola did a few simple front flips in the air, then moved on to back flips, and finally she did a cartwheel and land lightly on my lap. Unfortunately, her attempt at a cartwheel went haywire, and instead of pirouetting down onto my lap, she kinda tumbled down from the ceiling in a flurry of flailing paws and flashes of green and collapsed very ungracefully into my arms.

"Tada," she said weakly, and at this I completely lost it. Chortling with laughter, I set her down gently, and after glaring at me for a few seconds, her will crumbled into dust and she giggled hysterically in harmony.

"Oh gosh mommy, me sides hurt now!" Lola gasped, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

Suddenly, I thought of something that chased away the laughs.

"Lola," I said carefully, "since you can kinda talk now..."

"No worries mommy," she said as solemnly as she could. "Youz secrets are safes wef me." At those words I breathed a sigh of relief, for I had told countless of my secrets to Lola, and thank gods she wasn't going to let the cat out of the bag.

Suddenly, Lola sniffed the air cautiously, and with a frightened cry zipped behind my shoulder, trembling against my back.

"Lola," I whispered, "What is it?"

Shuddering, she peeked out from behind me, and ducked her head down again before replying, "Deaf aura mommy. Stwong stwong stwong deaf aura."

I was about to reassure her when Emma ran up to me. Literally, this was the second time in the space of ten minutes I was almost stampeded over.

"Hey Jasmine, you want to meet my familiar?" She asked rather breathlessly, but was already dragging my helpless body halfway across the floor leaving Lola shivering behind, well, nothing.

So instead of answering I asked another question, "Elves have familiars?"

Rolling her eyes in exasperation, she muttered something under her breath that sounded like, "Sweet Silinaril, of course I have a familiar, why does everyone ask that?" before replying, "Well DAR! 'Course I have a familiar, I do have magic you know."

She pulled me to a corner that wasn't swarming with tufts of fur, and finally stopped tugging at my arm.

"Esther, meet Jasmine, Jasmine, meet Esther, my Sun Wolf," Emma said, gesturing proudly to, um, thin air.

"Emma? There's nothing there," I said, arching an eyebrow at her.

"Esther! Oh, that rascally wolf," she muttered, and started running around calling her head off.

Just then, I heard a low growl behind me that made the hairs on the back of my head rise with fear. Stiffening my back, I slowly turned around to see a rusty colored wolf glaring at me. It had amber eyes that would've been adorable looking if they weren't staring menacingly at me, large paws, white underbelly, and a grey-brown stripe going down it's spine. Two symmetrical grey Z shapes were on both of it's hind legs, and a light maroon ring around it's eyes.

Now you're probably thinking, Dude, you're a life elemental, can't you just talk to it or something? Well yeah, I could, but that doesn't mean whatever animal I wanna have a nice conversation with is up for a chat. In fact I'm pretty sure this particular wolf isn't, just the opposite. Added to that, I've had bad experiences with wolves. Even in the city. There was this one time where one almost bit my hand off wrestling a piece of cheese (Don't ask me why it wanted cheese.)from me. Weird right? Then again, everything about my life is weird, no surprise there. And I had a hunch that it was just about to get weirder.

Meanwhile the wolf was still growling at me, and I could see it's hind muscles tense.

At that moment, Emma decided to reappear, and a look of horror crossed her face.

"Esther no!" She cried, flinging herself down next to Esther, and gently stroking her. Emma started talking to Esther, but her tone of voice changed to a slightly lilting, melodic sound, and she was accenting certain letters. Catching a few snatches of her soft murmurings, they mostly sounded like, "It's alright...friends...yes...last one huh? ...I know, but you have...trust me on this..." By that point Esther was perfectly calm, and her tail was now wagging rapidly as she trotted up to me with a sloppy, apologetic lick.

"I'm sorry," I heard her say in a gruff, dog like voice.

"You are forgiven," I said, restraining my giggles at Esther's somewhat amazed expression. I'm guessing life elementals have been gone for quite a while because the animals seemed to have forgotten that I can talk to them.

"She's a Sun Wolf, there aren't many left now," Emma explained. "What's left

of them are scattered in small packs across the Gilan Plains." I nodded and petted Esther's head before Brook caught up to me, thankfully without accidentally knocking me over.

"Jasmine, guess what?" I was about to guess that she finally found her math homework that she supposedly "lost" before Brook answered her own question. "My familiar is a silver jaguar!" With those words she stepped aside to reveal a regular looking jaguar with blue eyes much like Brook's.

I snorted, "Doesn't look very silver to me."

Brook rolled her eyes, the jaguar mimicking her movement, "Course Cosmo doesn't have silver fur, at least not in the day. It only turns silver at night."

"Oh, that clears it up," I said sarcastically, "why didn't you say that earlier?" Brook punched my shoulder, rolling her eyes again. She's been lolling her eyeballs around a lot today.

Lola just now decided to show up, and she perched precariously on my head clumsily and declared, "Mesa mommy's fwamiler, anz me name iz Lola!"

"Right," Brook said, attempting to keep a straight face while Cosmo and Esther coughed to cover up their laughter, and Emma turned her face aside, her shoulders heaving in silent giggles. Luckily I'm great at poker faces, or else Lola would have shredded me for laughing at her.

A happy bark interrupted our giggle fits, and suddenly a darker orange dog with a white chest, underbelly, and paws raced up to Esther and the two began a very, er, interesting conversation about dog biscuits. The dog's tail was wagging quickly and as I watched, a small candle flame appeared at the white tip.

"Shelby!" I heard someone yell, and Natalie jogged up to us panting and heaving. I cringed as the doggy chat switched to the quite vivid description of various types of meat, and I was trying not to puke all over the floor when Shelby started yapping about "deliciously bloody" beef.

"Emma, is she yours?" Emma nodded, still smiling from Lola's amusing entrance.

"Good thing she stopped, otherwise I would have collapsed," Natalie said, still tired out from chasing the energetic dog.

As Brook, Natalie, and Emma gushed over how awesome their familiars were, I absently petted Lola's purring head while trying unsuccessfully to shove the annoyingly aware presence in my mind.

Suddenly, I felt it chuckle lightly, and as quickly as it appeared, it faded away finally leaving me alone with my thoughts. Letting out a sigh, I leaped into the conversation attempting to distract myself from unnerving suspicions to who was invading my personal thoughts.

In that instant, a dark blast of freezing wind hit my back, making me fall down onto the stone floor, banging my head. I had just enough time to think, "How many times do I have to faint in a day?", when I blacked out.

That's chapter fourteen! Please please please review!


	16. Chapter 15: Yet More Familiars

**Chapter Fifteen: Yet More Familiars**

"Jasmine?" I faintly heard somebody call, the voice registering in my dim mind as Ashling.  
"Did you have to do that Nightshade?" A soft voice sighed in exasperation as I struggled to lift my heavy eyelids.

Feeling short gusts of wind against my face, I strained to hear other things around me to give me a clue as to where I am.

"Emma, when will she wake up?" Chloe asked anxiously, but Emma didn't say anything. Somebody was poking my shoulder restlessly, and to tell you the truth, it was starting to irritate me.

"Move!" I yelled mentally at my muscles, but they refused to function, my arms and legs limp at my sides.

"Should I spray her again?" Brook asked, and I could guess that Natalie was glaring daggers at her. Just then I noticed that my clothes felt damp and cold against my skin. That's two unnecessary showers I've taken today.

A fuzzy nose was nudging and sniffing at my hand, whom I guess belonged to Lola. Someone placed their hand on my forehead, and muttered something that sounded like, "She's so cold... For Gilabrian's sake Nightshade, did you have to show off your wings three feet away from her?" The last part was purposely spoken out loud for everyone to hear. I could hear someone- or something-snort with annoyance, and a particularly strong breeze gusted over my face carrying a faint scent of reptile.

"Now now," Adrian's voice chided, "don't be annoyed Nightshade, you know it was your fault. And you Stephen," he added with a hint of anger, "shouldn't leave him alone while you two haven't even bonded yet."

"My mom called, okay?" Stephen muttered, scuffling what sounded like his feet. "And Nightshade wanted to stay with Tego."

Finally, I managed to wrench open my eyes, and was greeted with a squeal from Lola, "Mommy's alive! Thank the Spirits!"

Instantly everyone snapped back to me. Emma and Brook lifted me up by the arms while Lola whizzed excitedly around my head, occasionally pausing to glare at a black scaled dragon.

"Nightshade, watz do youz says?" She said in her best stern voice. The dragon hung his head, his red eyes dimming slightly, and muttered grumpily, "Sorry Jasmine."

"It's okay, " I assured him, managing to stand up fine on my own, and cracked a small smile. "I think I'm used to fainting now huh?" At this the tension in the air faded, and Adrian grinned at me widely. Gerrold nudged Stephen and mirrored Adrian's smile.

"You know Stephen, you should really be more careful since you two-" He was interrupted by Emma elbowing him in the ribs and making a shushing motion. Sabrina let out a fake cough into her fist while the rest of them radiated awkwardness. I raised an eyebrow at them, but was content to let the matter rest. For now.

"Who's this?" I asked quickly, turning to a badger with intelligent soft brown eyes, and a soil colored patch on it's furry forehead.

"My name is Brownie," she said in a low pitched, gruff voice, "Ashling's familiar."

"Nice to meet you," I replied, inwardly giggling to myself as all of them snapped their heads up to look at me with awe in their eyes.

"You can talk to her?" Ashling asked incredulously, leaning down to lift Brownie into her arms.

I shrugged, secretly pleased at how much it surprised everyone, "Therugist thing."

"Then you can understand me too?" A light airy voice piped up, and shouldering it's way to me was a pale lavender Pegasus with pure white feathered wings and dark purple eyes that gleamed with interest. It's mane was brushed into big curls of white, and so was it's tail.

"Yup!"

Chloe scooted in between us, "Er, Jasmine, meet Violet, my Pegasus. Violet, Jasmine." Violet tossed her head haughtily, and spread her wings proudly. I suppressed a giggle at her attempts to gain attention.

Suddenly I heard a sniffing noise behind me, and a short huff as whoever it was sneezed.

"Nightshade, why are you smelling Jasmine's hair?" Stephen called, yanking his tail backwards causing Nightshade to stagger in mid air, and turned to me with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, he's a little curious."

"She smells like flowers. Absolutely disgusting," the shadow dragon muttered followed by a gagging sound. I'm guessing death element familiars don't like the scent of spring. Shame really, so missing out.

"Don't be rude!" A cheery voice scolded teasingly, and Sabrina exclaimed, "Bubbles! Ugh, why can't you follow my directions for just a few minutes?"

A floating bubble of water flew past Sabrina's shoulder, and inside giggling happily was a light blue dolphin. It had adorable brown eyes, and silvery patterns of overlapping circles dappled it's smooth skin.

"The name's Bubbles, nice to meet you!" She chirped, doing a backflip excitedly in the water.

"You too," I replied while Lola tried unsuccessfully to bounce Bubbles's, um, bubble around.

Emma suddenly burst out, "It's time!" She looked ready to explode with anticipation as all of us looked over to her and Esther questionably.

"Time for what?" I asked uneasily. Everyone's faces practically lit up with excitement upon realization, except for Natalie, Brook, Stephen, and I. Lola looked ready to break into a jig, and Violet clopped her hooves noisily against the stone floor while Brownie stood up on her hind legs, eyes shining. Esther and Shelby had their tails blurred as they scraped their claws impatiently on the ground while Bubbles was rapidly filling up her water bubble with, er, bubbles of happiness. Even grumpy Nightshade was showing signs, his wings leaping faster and faster causing him to swoop up and down erratically. All I had was serious confusion, and utter annoyance at how Emma seemed to have let everyone in on what's going on.

Camerou chose that particular time to step up and announce, "Elementals, please proceed into the Celestial Chamber with your familiars."

"It's time, it's time, it's time!" Emma was bouncing up and down on her heels, her cheeks flushed, and ran off towards double doors with Esther bounding breathlessly after her. At this rate Emma would have enough energy to power a whole town.

I sprinted after her, Lola fluttering behind my shoulder, and Brook followed suit.

"Where's Natalie?" I called, still not breaking my stride.

"She said she wanted to wait for her mom."

I acknowledged her reply with a curt nod, bursting through the silver and gold doors.

Once again this room was much like the others, except there were only three pillars forming a triangle at the corners of the room. The one nearest to me was pure gold with smiley face sun carved at the top, and the whole pillar seemed to radiate light and heat. To its right was one built from silver, and a crescent moon glinted above giving off a soft silvery glow. At the tip of the triangle was a pillar made entirely from a dark blue, marble like stone. Minuscule crystals were embedded in the pillar giving off light, and a perfectly cut crystal star twinkled at the top. What surprised me was that the whole ceiling was completely open to the sky, separated only by a thin sheet of glass. The full moon poured light in long slanted shafts into the room.  
In the dead center of the pillar triangle was a round circle made out of foggy glass. Gold plating laced the edges, and closer inspection revealed the element symbols arranged in a circle around it.

"Elementals, welcome to the Celestial Chamber. Here we will begin the Companion ritual."

~.~

Chapter Fifteen! Yeah yeah, it was short, but oh well! R&R please!


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: Why Do My Instincts Have to be Right?!**

People flowed, or more like shuffled, in steady streams to the center of the room taking their places in element groups behind their elemental symbols.

"Come on," Brook called over her shoulder, already hurrying off with Sabrina, Cosmo bounding at her feet and Bubbles swimming happily next to Sabrina's side. I was about to join them when the faintest murmurings of conversation reached my ears. Spinning around, I quietly crept behind the sun pillar to see a teenage storm elemental whom I recalled as Sadie arguing heatedly with Thymarra.

"But we've already down this thousands of times!" Sadie complained, disgust in every word. She yanked her blonde hair in frustration, accidentally pulling strands out of her braid.

"Sadie, I told you, we do this because who knows? Maybe now that the new trainees are here, we will find a bond," Thymarra soothed, angling her body suggestively towards the glass circle.

Sadie stubbornly refused to move, "I absolutely am not going to hold hands with William again!"

We were supposed to hold hands? I didn't get a chance to dwell on the absolute weirdness of that when Thymarra cut in hastily, "No, no, no. Sadie, that was six years ago, okay? Camerou found another way now, using the Mirror." Sadie gaped at her for a few moments before grumpily stomping down to where the scracers were gathered.

I took the opportunity to take my place behind the jade leaf, oddly feeling a twinge of...well, I'm not sure what exactly. Someone mentally nudged me, and I let out a surprised squeak as I sensed the presence again, this time pushing me to step forward. Something about it felt different from the one I felt when I was walking with Emma, cold, with a touch of malice.

Camerou raised his arms for silence, and a stillness fell over the room, "To begin the Companion Ritual," he paused as a grumbling rose from several older kids, and he chuckled lightly to himself, "I want to announce that Thymarra's daughter, Emma, has informed me of four young elements that have showed few signs of...awareness." Oh please no. I braced myself as Camerou triumphantly called the kids up, "Natalie Brande, Brooklyn Raine, step up on your element symbols." I let out a sigh of relief. They both exchanged puzzled glances, and Emma elbowed them forward. Taking a deep breath, Natalie hesitantly stepped onto the flame while Brook stood on the water droplet.

Instantly a golden glow appeared in the glass, and shocked gasps rang around the groups as two golden lines threaded out from both Natalie and Brook's feet, joining at the center. Happy calls were shouted as Natalie and Brook grinned at each other.

Camerou smiled and held up his hands again, "A gold bond! Natalie and Brooklyn, congratulations! Now, I have another pair that might just have a bond as well." Oh goshies, I wanted to cover my ears or even better, drop down in a faint again, but Camerou hurried on without a pause, "Jasmine Hua and Stephen Wei, please step up onto your symbols." Why in the world are my instincts always correct?! I mean sure, it has saved my sorry soul countless of times in minor skirmishes, but for once I had feverently wished it was wrong. As always, I disappoint myself.

I had little choice but to place my feet on the leaf, and as Stephen took his place on the skull nervously, a blinding golden flash of light from the Mirror, even brighter that previously, lit up the room. Squinting my eyes against the too bright light, I watched as a gold line snaked and weaved it's way towards to center, connecting with its pair in the middle. Stephen looked up at me with his black eyes, and he managed a small smile as his face clouded over with concentration. Hooray, my life is probably now gonna get worse, thanks a lot Emma. Despite my slightly negative feelings, I expected the same welcome that greeted Natalie and Brook, but frantic whispers rippled from everyone gathered instead.

"This fulfills part of the prophecy!"  
"It's them!"  
"She's supposed to-"  
"No, she might not!"  
"The prophecy states it clearly!"  
"In all my years I never expected the Wei and Hua family to finally intertwine again-"  
"Much less with this generation! I'm happy for them though!"

But as cheers overlapped the slightly disturbing murmurs, a small, thin silver line came out from my feet, and disappeared into the edge of the circle. Odd... How in the world can I be two opposite companions at a time? Ugh, nevermind, my brain is squashed enough already.

"Elementals, today, we are blessed by the Spirits with not only one, but two opposite companions. A fire and water bond, as long as the rarer life and death bond," at this his brown eyes darkened with worry. "Later today I personally will explain what this will mean to the young elementals, but for now, let us all file down to the armory to let the new trainees receive their weapons, and begin training right after!"

Several teens muttered, "Finally!" at the end, and they were the first to shove their way into what I guessed to be the armory. Honestly, I don't get what was so great about battle. These people aren't even thinking right, fighting is physical contact, physical contact equals injuries, and injuries lead to scars. Trust me, I've had more than my fair share of battle marks to last the rest of my life. Shuddering at the memories, I shouldered my way to the crowd, searching for Natalie, Brook, Emma, or anyone really, but as a vertically challenged person (in other terms, I'm short), it was kinda hard for me to peer over the crowd. I suddenly sensed the presence again, and with it came a feeling of excitement mingled with a touch of caution.

_Stephen?_ I silently called, and felt his quiet agreement flow through my mind. I got the excitement part, but caution? It's not like I punched him or anything, guys usually don't show any respect for me unless I give 'em a piece of my mind. Hmm.

Shrugging it off to ponder later, I caught up with Natalie and Brook who were staring at each other in concentration while walking.

"Guys?" I asked, waving my hand in front of their blank faces. They snapped out of it and smiled at me brightly.

"Jasmine, congrats!" Natalie exclaimed, her wild blonde curls bouncing with every step.

"Yeah, you and your boyfriend are literally soul mates!" Brook squealed, skipping around me like a little toddler.

"Brook!" I complained, pushing her side. "Can you stop it with the love comments? I really don't want to lose control again."

As I finished speaking, I felt Stephen silently seething in my head, which didn't really help me calm down.

"Dude," I hissed to myself, "can you keep it down?" Quickly his emotions dimmed down, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who are you talking to?" I heard Emma's voice ask, and her form melted from the group. Oops, forgot about her advanced hearing.

"No one..." I snapped grumpily, and she looked taken aback. Instantly I felt guilty for lashing out, it wasn't her fault after all.

"Sorry," I muttered, "didn't mean to snap." Emma smiled forgivingly, and with a small wave headed over to where Thymarra was standing. Ashling and Chloe were deep in conversation, and I chose not to bother them, deciding to walk by myself instead. Well, not completely by myself, he was still in there, and I was getting a tad bit annoyed at his probing through my memories. Imagining a stout metal safe in my mind, I gathered all of my thoughts in one place and metally shoved all of my private memories in there. It seemed to work 'cause I felt much more relaxed after that. Cool.

Hmm... Could I go into _his _mind? Taking a deep breath, I carefully pin-pointed where Stephen was, and plunged in.

**So yuppers, that's Chapter Sixteen for you peeps who are reading this! :D**

**I must say that I'm getting discouraged. I've had over 150 views on this, but only 8 reviews... Does that mean you guys don't like it? :(**


	18. Chapter 17: One Weapon Down

**Chapter 17: One Weapon Down...**

He apparently wasn't aware I was technically in his brain. In my mind's eye I noticed thin, dark wisps of, um, stuff floating around. All around me were small gold sparks that felt like excitement, but at one corner was a maroon colored blotch of what I hoped to be fruit juice. Curiously, I reached out with my mind and touched the stain. Instantly I could feel myself falling into familiar darkness, and I lost control over my mind, letting myself fall into his memories.

_A shriek of pain sliced through the air as a woman unwrapped the soiled bandages from around a small boy's back. His coal black eyes filled with tears of agony as the woman gently touched the raw wound on his back. _

_"Mom, put it back, put it back!" He yelled, salt water flowing down his dust caked cheeks when his mother probed the wide cut with a finger. _

_"I'm sorry dear, but I need to get it washed out, or it'll get infected," she replied soothingly as she carefully squeezed out drops of water from a rag over his back. _

_He bit his lip, and said in a scared voice, "Mom, what if I got free too late? What if Jasmine got stabbed by the-" His mother made a shushing motion, "It's not your fault, it is Garlistrom's. Do you understand?" _  
_Nodding and sniffling, the boy gasped in pain as she rubbed a green paste into his cut. _

_"There you go. Now come on, we need to get away from this place."_

_"But-" he protested, his eyes drifting towards the remains of a small hut, now burned into nothing more than ash and charred poles._

_"Come on!" She yanked sharply on his arm, and he had no choice but to follow her, every once in a while glancing back mournfully at the devastation of the village._

Suddenly a strong force slammed into my spirit, jarring me awake from the memory. The wall pushed me back forcefully, and anger pulsed all around me like a living being. I got the message, and pretty much flew back to myself (that sounds weird when I put it like that doesn't it?). Shuddering at the strong emotions flowing over me, my spirit returned into my body.

Jolting back in my own mind, I realized I was standing like a statue in the armory where about ten tons of pointy metal could drop on me at any moment, and that Camerou was saying something or the other about finding your third arm, which sounded completely wacko to me, no offense intended.

"Hello? Earth to Jasmine?" Natalie called, flapping her arm in front my blank face.

"AHHH! Oh, sorry," I said sheepishly, "what are we supposed to do?" Natalie sighed dramatically in exasperation.

"OMG Jasmine, do I have to say this again? We. Are. Finding. Our. Weapons." She pronounced each word slowly and carefully like when a teacher talks to a preschooler.

"Oh," I muttered half-heartedly, unable to fully concentrate. Mainly because I could feel Stephen's rage in my head and in real life, what with him glaring daggers at my back. I don't blame him, I felt really guilty about the whole mind thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid curiosity.

Shaking my head, I tried to listen as Natalie rambled on and on about how to choose the right weapon, how to make sure it's "the one," etc. Honestly, none of it sunk in, because at that moment a sharp tug halted me in my tracks. Natalie was still walking and talking to thin air, and I decided to find out what made me stop. As I mentioned before, when my instincts kick in, I usually listen whether I like it or not. My gut lead me to where the archery equipment lay in a small corner, and there the pulling went haywire so that I was literally yanked off my feet towards something wrapped in an old piece of leather.

My hands trembled slightly as I gingerly peeled back the dust covered hide, and I let a gasp escape my lips when I saw what was hidden inside. An intricately hand carved bow laid on the leather, the beeswax sheen still glossy, and the grip was soft dark green leather. As I ran my fingers over the vine like designs, I subconsciously recognized the wood as aspen. Don't ask me how I knew that. The odd part? It was like the wood was still alive, the unpeeled bark throbbed and pulsed with life under my hands, which was confirmed by the green heart shaped aspen leaves growing from the wood at the top and bottom of the bow. The bowstring was surprisingly still strong and taut after what seemed like years of neglect, and I hefted it up to give a few test shots. A few satisfying twangs of the string met my ears, and I couldn't help but smile as the wood underneath my hand seemed to hum with delight.

Next to where the bow lay was a long leather quiver with complicated flower designs embroidered with golden thread. I sneezed as the layer of dust covering the quiver floated up into my nose, and tentatively touched the arrows buried inside the quiver. Drawing one of them out, I realized that the wood that made up the shaft hummed with life too. The iron arrowhead sharpened to a deadly point still gleamed as I turned it in the dim light, and the unpeeled willow bark made up the shaft. Running my fingers over the tail, I identified it as falcon feathers, trimmed and arranged into a neat, vaguely triangular shape as the tail of the arrow.

Suddenly I heard a faint stomping sound that gradually grew louder until it seemed to echo in the small space separating me from the rest of the elementals.

Natalie walked into the little corner, her face full of anger and frustration, "What the heck Jasmine?! I was gonna show you these awesome cool weapons that I liked and try to find one for you and- Oh," she broke off abruptly as she spotted me with the bow in my hand. Turning around, I held it up triumphantly and flashed her a smile. "I think this is the one for me. Javis."

**Chapter Seventeen! :D Review please!**


	19. Ch 18: Another One Down & A Freebie

**A/N: Okay, I know there are some of you who don't like my story, completely understandable. But when I said leave a review, I never meant a completely rude and inexcusable review like this:**

**WHY WOULD YOU WRITE GODS OF OLYMPUS IN YOUR STORY IF THIS STORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GODS?!**

THIS STORY IS SO STUPID! I MEAN I'M IN 4th GRADE AND I COULD WRITE A BETTER STORY!-Claire

**I must say, this seriously depressed me. That was actually a typo, I was planning to include Greek mythology in the early stages, but decided against it. So as you can see, Claire person, I never meant for it to be like this. Here is my reply:**

**Claire,  
As I said above, this is my first time writing, so no flames. Second of all, that was an accident and will be revised when I have time. Third of all, I don't mean to sound blunt, but that was extremely rude of you to say my story that I worked hard on is stupid. Read the next few chapters, and you maybe singing a different tune. And if you can write a better story, then go ahead and WRITE IT!  
I AM SICK OF LITTLE KIDS SAYING THEY CAN WRITE BETTER BUT NEVER PROVE IT!**

So, write it and prove yourself right, otherwise, LEAVE. MY. STORY. ALONE. WITHOUT. FLAMES!

-Jasmine

PS People like you are the reason why I started cutting myself. So unless you want me to commit suicide, please deliver your displeasure in a more polite way. I wrote this story to help me escape reality, as a victim of bullying all my life just like Jasmine, but I guess I have to be like this online too. 

**This is completely true. I wish I could stop, but people like Claire shatter hope for me. I've had eight years of this treatment, and I am throughly SICK of it. A lot of you would read this and probably give me a review that says that you don't care a (insert explict cuss word here) about my problems, but I want to get this out there. This is also partly the reason why I haven't felt like writing in a LONG time... Thank you for anyone who read this and relates. **

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen: Another One Down, and an Unexpected Freebie**  
Grinning at me back, Natalie held up her hands proudly, and I realized she had black, furry gloves on.

"One of my weapons, Apenar. Watch this." She then proceeded to take several steps back, and expertly flicked her wrists three times. Nothing happened.

I raised an eyebrow questionably as Natalie grunted and frantically flicked her hands up and down multiple times, all the while muttering, "Ugh, it's stuck again!"

Suddenly there was a sound like a sword being drawn(or you can just imagine it as a shing sound. Whatever), and instantly five wickedly sharp steel blades about a foot long retracted from both gloves, and Natalie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tada!" She proclaimed, waving her hands around dangerously. Dangerous because there were now a total of ten super sharp blades fluttering all over the place, and I was forced to duck my head several times to avoid being skewered into a human kabob before she calmed down enough to stop flailing her arms about like a haywire helicopter.

"Ooh, and look at Marda, my awesome fire whip!" In her excitement she pronounced fire, "fiyah," which I'm guessing I need to get used to. Pulling off her gloves, she revealed a plain looking leather bracelet on her wrist with iron clasps on the tassels.  
I glanced at her incredulously, "Um, Natalie, that's a-" But before I could finish she yanked the tassels sharply, and a yard long, classic whip appeared in her waiting hand. As I stared at the long, inch thick piece of metal, orange flames burned from her palm onto the whip, making it blaze with scalding heat.

"Woah," I muttered, inwardly relieved when she squeezed the leather handle and it transformed back into a regular brown bracelet.

"Does Javis have a disguise?" Natalie queried, peering intently at my bow.

"Um, not that I know of..." I answered uncertainly. Gripping the leather handle tightly, I experimentally tilted it to the right, and suddenly Javis disappeared, leaving a simple jade bangle on my right wrist. Gaping at the bracelet, Natalie hesitantly walked over to where the quiver lay, or should I say, was.

"Wow Jasmine, your quiver has it's own disguise too!" She said excitedly, lifting up a button on, pale brown leather hoodie with the same flower and vine designs on the quiver.

I faced away from Natalie as she attached the hood onto my shirt, which mysteriously had button holes at the nape of my neck. As I watched, the brown color shimmered and faded into a bright green to match my shirt.

"Nice," I muttered, inspecting the small carvings on the bangle, and realized they spelled out Javis in cursive letters.

Suddenly Brook's head poked inside the archery corner, and she exclaimed in relief, "Oh, you're in here! Thymarra wants to see you Jaz." I was too preoccupied with thoughts of why exactly Thymarra wanted to talk to me to be annoyed at her calling me Jaz. If it was any other person, I probably would have kicked their sorry guts till they cried for mercy.

"Okay." Walking outside, I realized most of the new elementals like me found their weapon already. Brook had a pure black obsidian bow in her hand, and a navy blue leather quiver strapped to her back along with a sword in a deep aquamarine sheath hanging from her newly acquired belt. Silver thread spelled out Aquarius on the scabbard of her sword.

Walking briskly to avoid getting sliced into chunks by overexcited elementals, I finally reached the spot where the Council were patiently waiting. Thymarra was chatting cheerfully with Indrian about who knows what, but dropped all conversation when she spied me standing a little ways beside her, tapping my heel inpatiently.

Whispering something to Indrian, Thymarra glided over to where I was standing, and began, "Jasmine, I need to give you something, actually two somethings, that came from you mother." I cringed, expecting a whole onslaught of memories to come and whisk me away, but nothing happened. Relaxing a bit, I leaned against an empty sword stand and cocked my head to one side, waiting.

"This, Jasmine, is Silvakopis, your great great great great- er, lets just say distant ancestor's long dagger, passed down for generations to the children of the Hua family. Your mother and I were good friends, and she passed Silvakopis to me for safekeeping." With those words Thymarra graciously handed to me a dagger with a tough, bark brown sheath, embroidered with the same vine and flower designs on her quiver. Grasping the leather bound hilt, I drew Silvakopis out with a soft hiss of metal against metal. The handle was made out of living willow wood, thrumming faintly beneath the straps of light brown leather forming a comfortable grip. Simple carvings of vines were hand carved onto the hilt, and the narrow triangular shaped iron blade glinted coldly in the white washed light. I gave a few experimental flicks with the dagger, slashing the air a couple times before sheathing it.

"Thanks," I said simply, gratitude welling up in me. Thymarra smiled, and reached over to grip the hilt. There was a faint metallic shing, and Silvakopis vanished to be replaced by a bronze flower hairpin with a single round emerald in the center. Slipping it into my hair, Thymarra smoothed down a few strands before revealing yet another surprise. In her palm was a neatly coiled necklace. A sparkling crystal heart pendant was the only adornment, and forest green braided string for the chain. I was too stunned to do anything but stare rigidly, too scared to take it for fear of the memories.

"Take it," a beautiful, familiar voice whispered. My mother's scent, an intoxicating combination of fresh leaves and lavender, wreathed around me, and if I squinted, I could almost see her shimmering behind Thymarra. "Take it my flower, it has always been meant for you." Slowly her hazy form dissolved like mist on a sunny morning, and in desperation I choked out, "Mom!" But before I could call out, the misty image of my mom disappeared altogether, and the last fragments of her scent scattered into the air. Shakily I grasped the necklace, and slipped the cord over my head. As soon as the cool crystal came in contact with my skin, it glowed golden for a few heartbeats before the light faded. Thymarra dipped her head towards me, and turned to Camerou.

"Elementals, once you have been matched with your weapons, proceed to the House of Battle."

**Chapter Eighteen! Okay, so please review, I've had over 250 views, but no rviews, at least GOOD reviews... :( So that either means you don't like it, or like it but too lazy to post a simple comment like: "Good story." I've been pretty patient, but I've just about had it. Mentioned before, I don't stand flames, as a sensitive person, so please, if you hate my story, just say something among the lines of this: "Hey, I don't really like this story, i'm sorry. (insert advice on improving here if any)" Got it? Sigh. Sorry about the rant, I just couldn't take it anymore.**


	20. Ch 19: I Get Harmed by JackFrost's Sis

**Chapter Nineteen: I Get Tortured by Jack Frost's Evil Sister**

As I was yet again tugged unwillingly into the bustling crowd, Emma gracefully weaved her way towards me, flouncing to a stop grinning like mad.

"Isn't this great?" She exclaimed enthusiastically looking ready to fly straight out of her leather boots. Silent laughter from Stephen rang at the back of my head before he abruptly remembered he was mad at me. I winced as he mentally slammed away from my mind leaving a throbbing sensation like he actually did bang a door in my brain.

"Yeah," I replied distractedly, still pondering over the necklace, and the properties that it contains. Shrugging her shoulders, she bounced off again, yelling a greeting to an air elemental along the way. That girl is livelier than a puppy, I thought in exasperation as she chattered away about something or another.

Suddenly, my limbs froze. A coldness was creeping its way into my muscles, thoroughly paralyzing my body before I even registered what was going on. Struggling in vain for about five fruitless minutes, I finally gave up and stood still, acting as normal as possible in hopes that after a while the inner frost would go away. Nevertheless, it had caught me in an awkward position with my arms slightly stretched out in front of me and feet sprawled in two different directions, so that earned quite a few odd looks from the passing elementals that I covered up with a big fat grin. Giving my stance and current smiling skills, I could tell it wasn't very convincing.

Soon the flow of people filing out of the armory slowed to a tiny trickle that eventually stopped. Still the freezing effect gripped me, tightening its icy grip.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," a hauntingly sweet voice sneered from a dark corner. "Little Miss Green Eyes completely helpless."

"Oh shut up," I muttered as Kate, in all her glittering glory, stepped out from the shadows, smirking as she surveyed her handiwork. Claire was mirroring her at her side, both fixing me with an icy glare.

Kate raised one perfectly manicured finger, and pointed it sharply behind me. Instantly, my body slammed painfully against the solid stone wall, the breath knocked out of me and earning a surprised gasp. Jerking against the bonds, only my head was able to freely move, and right now that didn't really help anything. Gliding luxuriously towards my direction, Kate slowly lifted my chin, her long nails digging into my skin, and I met her penetrating blue gaze defiantly.

"See here Green Eyes, we don't want you around," she purred menacingly, adding the pressure under my throat, "you get all the attention don't you? I bet you love it, you little minx. But I don't want you to get everything, to be revered by the weak clone excuse for a Council. So you listen very carefully now." Here she leaning in close, so close that the overwhelming stench of her Gucci perfume was choking me, and whispered darkly, "You. Are. Going. To. Stay. Out. Of. Our. Way. Got it? And to emphasize that, we'll secure it." Giggling like a lunatic, Claire pulled out a clear crystal like dagger and handed it to Kate, all the while laughing madly. Kate smiled with satisfaction, and made a big show of sharpening the razor sharp blade. A feeling of desperation grew as she ambled closer, pointing the dagger to my arm, trailing the tip over my elbow leaving a trail of goosebumps.

"Oh, but don't worry," she said mockingly as I squeezed my eyes shut. "We'll make sure you will survive. Just barely though. Claire?" At the mention of her name, Claire stepped up, a coy smile playing on her lips, and drew her hand back, thrusting it foward, and I screamed as my head was forced back, baring my throat. Burning cold wove it's way around me, leaving a feeling that I was being scalded alive.

"Scream all you want Green Eyes," she snarled, advancing towards my helpless body, "no one will come and save you now will they?"

I heard the sickening wet slicing sound before I registered the pain. Agony blossomed from the long cut down my arm, and scarlet drops flowed from my severed veins. The pain was unbearable, hot and cold at the same time, and by the time Kate had created a deep wound on my left shoulder, I was barely keeping my head above unconsciousness to even feel the sharp sting the cut caused me. Just before I completely lost control, I felt a flash of alarm followed by the quick thuds of runing feet. _Stephen? _I called out frantically before the murky darkness pulled me away from the feeble threads of reality.

~.~.~.~.~

Drowning. I was drowning in a pool of shadows, keep alive only by the sounds, the loud disorienting sounds all around me. Twang after twang echoed through the dim haze, and shrill shrieks sliced the air followed by yells of fury.

"She's not warming up," a familiar voice murmured softly, ditress flowing off from the speaker. "And she's not waking up either."

"Give it a rest Stephen," a gruffer tone answered, worry coloring it too, "she's been through a lot."

"I know, but it's my fault!" Anguish replaced the fear, and through the murk I think I could see a pale face twisted up with misery, pitch black eyes filled with concern. "If I had been listening we would have saved her sooner!" _My friends are here, _I thought, relaxing a little, and slowly the darkness gave away to light.

My eyes flew open, and sighs of relief rang around the room. Soreness stiffened my body along with a freezing sensation, and both of my arms were throbbing.

Two pairs of black and blue eyes met my green eyes, and instantly relief lit up their gaze.

"She's okay!" Adrian shouted happily, and I cringed as the yell echoed uncomfortably in my ears.

"Adrian, dim in down on the excitement will you?" Emma said, rolling her eyes, "of course she's okay, she was still alive right?"

Stephen fixed her with a glare, "Yeah, just barely," he muttered, gently lifting my arm to examine the wound. It was still leaking thin trails of blood, and he carefully pressed a wet cloth to the long cut.

Emma returned with a glower, "Hmm, well last time I checked, it was _me_ who actually did all the fighting, and _me_ who drove those two fashion demons off-"

"And _I_ was the one to help Jasmine," he shot back heatedly while Adrian crouched protectively over me. Emma huffed indignantly and promptly turned her back on him, looking ready to impale him with one of her arrows.

"Guys, don't fight," I said weakly, shivering with cold. Stephen's attention snapped back to me, and his gaze softened a bit.

"You're freezing Jasmine," he whispered, touching my shoulder. Adrian leaned away from me, but it didn't really help the spasms of icy chills racking through me.

Thinking fast, Stephen reached out to the shadows on either side and weaved them together into a crude rectangular shape that drifted onto me.

"Th-thanks," I chattered, drawing the make-shift blanket closer. Surprisingly they actually helped, it was like having a soft warm coat that sucked up all the cold. After a few more minutes of shuddering, coughing, and general awkwardness between Stephen and Adrian, I could finally sit up straight without the whole world whirling before my eyes.

"Thanks guys," I said gratefully, managing to stand up and walk to the door with both of them supporting me from either side.

"Adrian Jared Daliter, _get over here!" _someone yelled furiously, and I could vaguely see an enraged woman whom I though to be Adrian's mom standing with her hands on her hips on the other end of the hallway.

"Oh shoot," he muttered, glancing at me apologetically, "sorry Jasmine, can you manage?"

"I'll be fine," I reassured him, smiling bightly. He responded with a curt nod before running down to face the punishment. I stifled a giggle at the lecture he was sure to get.

"Jasmine, are you okay?" Stephen asked, still supposrting me even though I was perfectly capable of walking by myself.

"I'm fine Stephen, see?" I help up my arms, and his eyes bugged out. Where the cruel cut was there was nothing but a angry pink scar, and as I watched the edges faded a bit.

"How-what-" he spluttered, his eyes ready to fall out of their sockets. "That's completely illogical!"

I looked at him wryly, "Dude, our very _existance _is illogical," I shot back, rolling my eyes. He was like a logic machine. I could totally picture a huge chunk of metal going: "Processing level of logic in situation." This time I couldn't help chortling at the image the tought conjured up, and he glanced over in confusion.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, pushing down the bubble of laughter to joke about later. It probably was because-

"It's probably because you're a therugist," he theorized, interuppting my thoughts.

"What are you, a mind reader?" I teased, poking his head. He ducked away and actually smiled for once.

"Nope, just really good at reading yours."

**Holy Spirits, over 300 views... O.O Well, that was sweet! :D Please review if you liked it!**


	21. Chapter 20: This Is FIGHT NIGHT!

**Chapter Twenty: This...Is...Fight Night!**

The very second Stephen and I set foot inside the House of Battle, I was completely overwhelmed by elementals all crowding around both of us.

"Did you die?"

"Were you paralyzed?"

"How many times did she stab you?"

"Did ya get a couple of good swipes?"

"Was it scary?"

"Did you get seriously hurt?"

"Did Stephen perform CPR on you?" Ashling squealed excitedly.

"No, yes, two, no, yes, yes, and _NO_!" I rattled off, glaring at Ashling's triumphiant expression. "He most certainly did _not._"

Quickly the questions simmered down, and Stephen carefully let go of me. My legs shook a bit before I gained control of them, and soon I was utterly spent by the showers of questions.

"Jasmine! Thank goodness you're alright!" Brook was shoving her way through the throng of people followed closely by a red-faced Natalie.

Both of them delivered a huge helping of bear hugs before I finally convinced them I was perfectly fine, and then suddenly Brook waggled her eyebrows mischeviously.

"Seems like Stephen's thinking about you," she said, glancing at him through the tides of people.

Following her gaze, I noticed Stephen's normally pale face was flushed pink with embarrassment, and that the guys around him were guffawing with laughter.

"Seriously Brook?" I protested, elbowing her hard enough to leave a bruise. I could feel the heat creeping up to my cheeks against my will, and this set Brook off again.

"Oh my gosh, Jasmine, are you _blushing_?! Chloe, Sabrina, Ash, come and look at Jasmine. She's _blushing!_"

"No!" I insisted, my annoyance deepening the color, "I'm just sweating that's all!"

Sabrina rolled her eyes and chuckled while Chloe said teasingly, "Really? And what's the cause of your sudden heat?" That remark let off peals of giggles all around, and I felt more embarrassed than I had been all my life, and that's saying a lot.

"Come on now," Natalie soothed, still wiping tears of laughter from her eyes even as she said that, "Jasmine's had quite a shock." Instantly the atmosphere around our little group turned serious, but before anyone could start up the conversation we were all thinking about, Thymarra stood up and held up her hand for silence.

Gazing around at the eager faces, she drew in a deep breath and spoke calmly, "Jasmine's..._incident_ with Kate and Claire will not interfere with all of your training. My daughter, Emma, shall give you a taste of what training is like around here." Turning to me, her tone softened and she continued, "Jasmine, if your wounds hurt you may sit out for tonight." I gave her a quick nod, but determination hardened inside me not to show weakness.

Emma stepped into a blue ring, and asked, "Does anyone volunteer to go against me?" Several hands shot up in the air, most from boys. Stupid, they have no idea who they're going against. Her lips curved up into a smile, and she pointed to Flinn, who walked into the now glowing circle. Drawing out a long blade, he tilted his head up arrogantly and said out loud, "Come on then."

Moving fast as a snake, Emma leaped and twisted to one side and fired three warning shots a single millimeter from Flinn's face, all at the exact same time. Less confident now, Flinn desperately jabbed and slashed clumsily, but Emma's agility was no match for his strength. Parrying his sloppy stab with her white-bleached bow, she drew her dagger and pointed the sharpened tip at Flinn's throat, grinning smugly. Cheers erupted from the watching crowd, and Flinn slunk back dejectedly.

"Anyone else?" Emma called, and suddenly there was a deafening silence. Suddenly, I made up my mind.

"I'll go," I answered, barely knowing what I was doing. Yup, rush into a battle with a half elf with about six years of battle experience recklessly, that's me. Her eye's widened in surprise before she regained her composure.

"Of course Jasmine," she said with mock politeness, notching an arrow, "whenever you're ready."

Pulling sharply on my hoodie while flexing my wrist, swiftly I fired an arrow in Emma's direction, but she ducked just as quickly out of the way. Pressing the emerald on the bronze pin, Silvakopis appeared in my waiting hand, and I rolled out of the way as one of Emma's arrows whizzed by my ear. Dancing nimbly out of range, I shot another two arrows in hopes to distract her, and sprinted behind her. Unfortunately she apparently knew that trick, because as soon as I moved her sword came slashing down right behind her, missing my shoulder by a centimeter. My mind racing, suddenly, under the soil I felt...life, tiny ancient seeds waiting to be released by...me. That's when it clicked. Thymarra nor Emma never said anything about not using my magic right? Metally kicking myself for not think about that sooner, in a flash I looped Javis behind my back, but kept Silvakopis in my hand.

"What, giving up so easily?" Emma asked incredously, advancing foward with her sword raised.

"Come on Jasmine, fight!" Brook yelled encouragingly.

"Sush, i'm concentrating," I hissed back, and closed my eyes. Time seemed to slow as I directed all of my mind's energy towards those little seeds, and they reached out eagerly towards me. My eyes flickering open, I could feel pressure building up dangerously inside of me, and as soon as emma was in range, I released them.

Deep green masses of ivy vines shot out from the dirt underneath Emma, winding at an alarming rate around her, rendering her helpless as they jerked around each other. I couldn't belive the power I felt in controlling those plants, the battle-lust clouding my mind as I waved my arm and the grew thicker and thicker around her.

"That's enough Jasmine!" Thymarra shrieked, and suddenly I was jolted out of the haze. Instantly the vines went limp, and Emma dropped ungracefully to the ground. Horror surged through me as I realized what I could have done, mirrored in Stephen's thoughts.

But all that worry was for nothing. She stood up, grinning like crazy.

"That was _awesome_ Jasmine!" she shouted, and ran over to hug me. But as the air buzzed with excitement over my little victory, I couldn't help but feel a cold knot of trepidation settle in the pit of my stomach. What if I had truly hurt her?

**Yup, that's Chapter Twenty! Please review!**


	22. Chapter 21 Mind Reading is SO NOT COOL!

**Chapter Twenty-One: Mind-Reading, is SO NOT COOL!**

I don't get what's the big deal about sharing minds with another person. I mean, most people are usually like, _Really? Wow, that is so awesome! _Three words for you people. In. Your. Dreams. When You think about it, it seems so amazing and wonderful, like, you can communicate through your mind with someone else? So incredibly wrong. Especially if the person your brain is magically and oddly linked to is a guy.

Don't get me wrong, it's helpful if it's with a best friend that is preferably in your group of friends. But mind-sharing with a guy that you still-kinda-hate-even-though-he-pretty-much-saved- your-life basically makes your head hurt. Literally.

Take Stephen and I's first ever magical duel for a wake up reality example. As soon as Reynia announced that we can now proceed to real, professional dueling, the House of Battle erupted into ear-shattering chaos. Elementals were jostling each other in an attempt to get the "best rings" (Honestly, I don't see any difference between that they are different colors), new peeps like me were almost scrambling over one another to read the dueling pairs, and when the older teens finally got to the dueling rings, half a second later you get a free fireworks show with the delight of entertaining yourself with people trying to blow up other people. Not exactly professional.

Finally, I managed to find a window of opportunity between two heads previously blocking my eyesight. Scrolling down the super long list, I zeroed in on my last name, Hua, and the name written in jet-black ink beside my green inked name. Oh goshies.

"Hi Jasmine. Um, I found a free ring over in that corner," Stephen said softly behind me. I whipped around and stalked off to the grey ring he was pointing to. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Why in the world do I have to be stuck with him every stinkin' moment of the day?!

"Are you ok?" he asked in concern, speeding up to walk by me. "If you don't want to fight because of your injuries, that's fine with me."

I clenched my jaw and took longer strides, "I'm _fine_ Stephen, stop freaking worrying." Fine, that was a little chippy, but I seriously wasn't in the mood for a nice, civilized chat.

"Ok, jeez," he muttered under his breath, sprinting towards the magical circle and breaking through the thin protective barrier. I followed suit, and broke through the slightly glimmering wall, feeling a tiny electric like spark run up my skin as I entered the force field thingy.

Instantly the faint calling of the deeply buried seeds twined into the soles of my feet, each yearning for a breath of fresh air.

"Hold on, hold on, I'm working on it," I murmured.

Drawing my energy, hesitantly a small green spark glowed on my waiting palm. In a matter of seconds it had grown and swelled into a full-blown Forest Missile. Yeah, i named it, it's not cheesy or corny. Aiming at Stephen, I let go of the glowing emerald ball of pure energy, the forest missile hurling at who knows how fast through the air in a deadly arc.

Apparently Stephen was thinking the exact same thing because out of nowhere a dark, ashy grey sphere streaked across the space between us, and before I realized what was happening there was a spectacular explosion of green and black fireworks in the middle of the ring.

"Seriously?" I yelled indignantly, fuming at him as the last sparks fizzled away in the air. He shrugged, and I seized the moment. Launching another Forest Missile towards him, I practically _screamed_ in frustration when a black orb whizzed to counter mine, once again shattering both attacks into a kaleidoscope of jade and onyx sparkles.

Glancing over at Brook and Natalie, I noticed their magic wasn't exactly lucky either. Same situation, fireball met waterball, ka-ploosh. Shaking my head, this time I threw two forest missiles at the same time, but obviously, no such luck. Double shadowy sparks flew from Stephen's hands, and-you guessed it- straight into a glittery collision in mid air. Argh.

That was when I had an idea. Closing my eyes, slowy I raised an imaginary wall between Stephen's mind and my own, sucessfully cutting off most of his thoughts therefore making my private thoughts, well, private again.

Grinning, I shifted my feet so that one was flat in front of the other, and curled my hands in fists. Focusing so that my head hurt, I gently tugged the small spheres of life closer and closer to the surface.

Suddenly cold black tendrils warpped around my waist, and I heard a scream as it yanked me up into the air. I'm pretty sure the scream belonged to me. My body no longer connected to the ground, the seeds were technically useless as I dangled helplessly in the air. Flashing me an apologetic glance, Stephen drew his arms above his head while I watched in horror as i realized that the inky shadows were creeping up on to my legs. Twisting and jerking, the shadows only hugged me tighter, and soon I couldn't move an inch.

"Sorry!" he yelled up at me before sharply letting his hand fall, and my body slammed painfully onto the dirt groud. Searing heat spiked up all over my back, and a groan escaped me as I tried to regain a standing position. Stephen was audibly panting, his face drawn tight with tension and tiny beads of sweat glistening on his brow.

Wincing, I managed to stand straight, and reached out to the little seeds still at my command. The pressure was building up in my body, and I felt weariness weigh at my arms when I lifted them up. Taking a shuddering breath, I pushed my arms in front of me in one swfit motion, and the groud beneath the soles of my feet quivered with the thick vines exploding all at once onto the surface.

_Free, free at last, _they seemed to call as the vines wrapped around Stephen, also lifting him up into the air. I wasn't going to take any chances. Snapping my fingers into a solid fist, the plant obeyed my thoughts and wound themselves around his arms and legs, so basically he looked like a mummy with green bandages that were growing rapidly. I mouthed an apology to him before I slammed the vines quickly against the floor, and there was a wet crunch and his body impacted with the ground. Oh goshies.

Another yell rang around us, this time from Stephen as the vines slowly sank back down into the soil. Oh no. What have I done?

"Stephen," I screamed, closing the distance and kneeling next to his still body. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

He coughed and opened his eyes, "I give up," he croaked, smiling, and sat up.

"Careful," I warned, placing my hand flat on his back.

This is weird. I felt blood, but I was sure I heard a crack...

"I'm okay Jasmine, the barrier heals any wounds quickly, plus it sped things up since you're here," he informed me, standing up healthy as a horse again.

"Wow," I muttered, "then what do they need a therugist for anyway?" He laughed softly, his black eyes twinkled as he hauled me up. "Good match, i think I could beat you next time though."

"Next time?" I asked him incredelously, fingering the small blood stain on my back. Next time, I am so wearing some sort of armor.

Suddenly, there was a sound like a bulldozer crashed through a wall, and a dark voice rumbled, "Where is she? Where is my prize?"


	23. Ch 22: A Dragon, Sarcasm, and Doom

**Chapter Twenty-Two: A Dragon, Elvish Sarcasm, and Doom**

I clapped my hands over my ears in an attempt to block out the shrill metallic screech echoing throughout the room. A rough scraping sound shook the walls, and emerald scales flashed across my vision.

I don't know about you, but if a huge dragon with acid pouring out of its nostrils just appeared in your room, would you scream? 'Cause I am currently scared outta my freaking wits. Yells of fear rose over the clamour as a large drake thrust it's head through the wall of the room. It's striking green scales glinted coldly in the dim light, and golden fringes lined its jaw. Acidic clouds of vapour billowed from it's mouth, revealing razor sharp rows of teeth that seriously needed some dental care.

"Show yourself!" it roared in anger, swinging its head around. Somehow Brook had kept at least part of her brain attached to her body because soon two black arrows whizzed through the air, but missed by a single millimeter. I followed suit, shakily aimed an arrow, and fired. My arrow sliced across the distance and flew past his ear.

"Longol, be gone," Camerou said calmly, rasing a wrinkled but steady hand, "I will not allow your presence here." Wha? He won't 'allow' his presence?

"Oh, I'm so afraid," the green drake sneered in contempt. "You cannot hide her forever."

"I said be gone!" he replied, authority underlying his command. A harsh rumble of defience came from Longol's maw before his form dissapated into thin air.

But before he went off, a dark menacing voice whsipered in my mind, wrapping scorching tendrils of hate aorund my very spirit.

"Oh, you can't hide from me, Jasmine Hua. I can _always _find you, and soon... You _will _come to me."

Too much. Too much pressure, too much noise, too much of everything.

"ARGH!" I yelled out in frustration, crumpling to the ground. Stupid prophecy, stupid destiny, stupid stupid stupid.

"Jasmine, what in the world was that?!" Natalie hollered, running over with her blades still out.

"I think she's... stressed," Stephen replied evenly. How does he freaking keep so... CALM in situations like this?!

"You _think_?" I groaned, turning over to lay on the cold stone ground, grateful for the numbing sensation.

Brook rolled her eyes and pulled me up, only for my body to collapse against the floor again.

"Jasmine! Oh my Spirits, are you alright dear?" Thymarra asked flusteredly, placing a soothing hand over my slightly-okay fine, a lot-feverish forehead. I think I'm coming down with something, because honestly I did not feel fine. Not at all.

Emma jogged over and probed my arm carefully, aiming for my presure points.

"I think she's just shocked a bit, give her some space, will you?" Hmm, gee, just shocked. Nice way to say it.

Slowly my erratic breaths returned to normal, and I managed to sit up properly without a splitting headache envading my thoughts.

"Who was that?" I questioned Thymarra, and she smiled unnaturally brightly.

"No one dear." I wanted to bash my head against one of those marble pillars in frustation. Adults and their faux cover-ups, pathetic.

"Seriously mom, just tell her," Emma quipped, giving her adoptive mother a long stare.

Thymarra laughed, 'Alright, alright. But," here she lowered her voice, "you guys can't tell Camerou that I told you, alright?" Everyone nodded.

She drew in a deep breath and started, "Longol was one of the most feared dragons. What makes him so dangerous is that he is a fey-dragon. Fey-dragons are rare and can only be created by the faeries, infusing their glamour with the hatchling's egg. Once, long ago, he was an ally of the therugists-"

"You mean that, that _thing _ was _friends_ with my ancestors?!" Throwing up seemed like a pretty good idea right about now. The idea that an all powerful evil dragon who was set up to _kill_ me was...let's just say disturbing.

Thymarra shot me a look, "He was. Anyway, when Camerou mastered Balance, we all drove him back. We _thought _he was dead, but what you just saw there proves that he's still out there. Besides, we've being getting strange reports, elementals are being targeted and constantly disappearing. Just yesterday the Holl family disappeared, which was odd because they were one of the most powerful solifysts in the area."

Was the Council that stupid? I mean, just go and capture him in like a magical sparkly net thingy and voila! They have magical sparkly net thingies right?

"The reason we can't defeat him is because that he is a fey-dragon. Fey-dragons are special, the only way to defeat them, is if it's own creator kills them. But the problem is, there weren't any life elementals to stop his detruction of the Elemental and human world. Until you came." It took me a few seconds to realize she meant me.

"What? This is insane mom, you're saying that _Jasmine _is just supposed to strut up to his lair and chop off his head?" Emma yelled, mimicking a knocking motion. "Knock knock Mr. Dragon. I'm just here to kill you, mind if I come in?" She finished her sarcasm with plopping down on the floor, crossing her arms and glaring at Thymarra defiantly.

"Of course Jasmine isn't going to go alone, that would be suicide,"Stephen interrupted Thymarra, rolling his eyes at Emma.

"Yeah," Brook piped up enthusiastically, "we can help Jasmine on this." Natalie nodded vigorously in agreement.

Thymarra furrowed her brow, 'Now hang on just a second here kids, you haven't had proper training yet, and-"

"And Jasmine can heal us," Natalie butted in, grinning at me widely. "Right Jasmine?" All heads swiveled in my direction, and panic seized me. I mean, sure, I knew all the herbs and all, but healing using instant magic?

Stephen shot me a sympathetic glance, "I don't know if Jasmine can use magic to heal yet. She doesn't have a proper teacher. I have no doubt that she _can, _its just that she needs time. After all, its her decision."

I breathed out a sigh of relief, and sent a shimmer of gratitude towards him via mind connection. He gave me a little don't-mention-it smile and turned back to Thymarra who was arguing with Camerou.

"..they can go Camerou. This is the day that Longol can be defeated once and for all. And besides, we can send elementals from all elements."

"But what about the Mountain passage Thymarra?" Camerou shot back. "They need to go through, and safely. The only way to do that in to go through the Valley Pass, and it is infested with all sorts of perilous evil."

"Send a message to the Night Tribe then," Thymarra suggested, "you know they would be willing. And as for a guide, we can send Millie with them."

"You have forgotton she has retired from Elemental duties Thymarra," Camerou said, sighing heavily. "And all the other guides are on urgent missions concerning the solifyst villages."

"Then I can go." I looked to see who spoke, and I realized with surprise it was Emma.

"No Emma, it's too dangerous."

She snorted, "Dangerous? Mom, I'm twelve thousand years old now. You've never ever let me out there. All you do is put on demon patrols, or small insignificant missions regarding storm spirits, or some other easy task!" Her voice was rising, and most of the other elementals were staring at the heated exchange. "I _want _to go Mom. This is _my _choice." Thymarra opened her mouth to protest, but Camerou whispered a few words to her, and she slumped her shoulders in defeat.

"Emma, I promised your Narya I would keep you safe."

"But you have Mom. And I think I can do it." She drew in shuddering breath. "And you know about my kin. They can be deadly." i did not like the sound of that, and i could tell Thymarra hated it too. All color drained from her face, and she moved forward to pull Emma in a hug.

"Alright Emma. But this hasn't been decided yet."

You know how you sometimes want to do something, but just don't have the required guts? The turmoil overlapping my thoughts were making my head hurt. All this time, and now I have a chance to prove myself.

Before I could think about the concequences, hastily I stood up and announced in a clear voice, "I want to go."

~.~.~

**Chappy Twenty-Two! Here comes ze drama...**


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